Value and Impact of Librarians’ Embedded IL Teaching on Student

Skills Development

LIVES Project (Library Impact and Value for Education and Skills)

Sue Shreeve and Emma Delaney

Background to the Project • Recent literature holds accounts of libraries

working to evidence the impact of their activities

– Oakleaf (2010); Creaser and Spezi (2012); Tenopir and Kaufman (2012)

• UWE faculty librarians discussed how they might measure and evidence the impact of their teaching on student skills development

• Curriculum refresh at UWE Bristol

Project Aim

To discover the perceived impact and to identify the value of four library interventions within the curriculum in developing student information skills at UWE Bristol.

• FET Library Online Workbook

• FBL Legal Methods ‘Building Legal Information Skills’ (BLIS) activity

• FBL Criminal Law library teaching

• HLS Critical Appraisal Skills Problem-based Learning

Project Objectives

• To analyse the perceived impact of four library interventions on students’ information skills development

• To define and promote the value of the impacts measured

• To gather feedback on the library interventions to identify possible enhancements and to improve librarian teaching

• To investigate the drivers and barriers to faculty staff embedding library teaching within their modules

FET Library Online Workbook (FET LOW)

• Online tutorial

• Introduced briefly in a lecture

• Embedded within UG & Foundation modules (>550 students)

• Context specific examples, practice, exercises

• Multiple choice assessment – 24 hour window

• Worth 6-14% of the module mark

HLS Problem-based Learning

• Level 2 and 3 ‘Critical Skills Appraisal’ module

• 90 minute session in library PC lab, hands-on

• Students search the databases using a quasi real-life case study in groups

• No direct assessment, although skills are needed for dissertation literature review

Building Legal Information Skills (BLIS)

• Online tutorials

• 1 hour workshop with law librarians in library PC lab, hands-on

• Students work through independently

• Embedded at Level 1 UG ‘Legal Method’ module

• Multiple choice assessment (40 questions) via VLE

• Worth 30% of the module mark

Criminal Law • Students are introduced to the Criminal Law

Learning Module material

• 2 hour workshop with law librarians in library PC lab, hands-on

• Librarians demo research resources and students work through research exercises directly relating to their research topic.

• Level 1 ‘Criminal Law’ module, semester 2

• Library ‘surgeries’

Methodology

• Literature review

• Looked for changes (based on Markless & Streatfield’s ‘Impact Implementation Initiative’) in: • Behaviour (doing things differently)

• Competence (doing things better)

• Levels of knowledge

• Attitudes (e.g. confidence, valuing librarians)

• Faculty staff and librarian interviews

• Student focus groups

Findings: Structure, Content and Administration

– The methodologies used

[the students] all enjoy doing a hands on session with a computer …. The teaching session is … accessible to students

… and it engages them” Legal Method lecturer

“Found the practical application to a scenario very useful” HLS student

– Content relevance

– Librarian impact

“… you have friendly librarians who run the session, they are very accessible, they make it clear to the students they can come and

ask for advice at any time, which I think is excellent…” Legal Method lecturer

“I thought that what the Library provided was really good … [The librarian] put together some worksheets that were

specifically aimed at the [assignment] questions that we were giving to the students … it was a really good way of getting [the

students] off on the right foot.” Criminal Law lecturer

-The look and feel of the intervention and online availability

“… the fact that [BLIS] materials are then available online, so [the students] … can

organise their own time … it works extremely well”. FBL lecturer

“It was very well structured” and “…it was … easily set out, in different categories, I

didn’t find myself getting muddled up in it, so it was good…”.

FET student

“I like the layout … and the fact that you have a picture of all your staff as well, that’s nice! “ Criminal Law student

Findings: Perceived Impact

Neutral, 16% Negative, 0%

Postive, 84%

Comments

Neutral

Negative

Postive

- 1/5th of the positive comments about impact related to an increase in confidence in searching for information:

“... [I was] not confident at all before … it has actually been a few months since the session but yet to say I am still confident, being

able to research, very helpful session.” Criminal Law student

“It helped me with some referencing that I wasn’t very familiar with. Now I am much more confident, I know how to do it.” FET

student

“I can look at the key words in a research title or subject and be able to confidently use it for the search.”

HLS student

- Altered searching behaviour

“Usually all I would have used would be Google Scholar and Wikipedia and [the library teaching] showed me how to find

the specific books that are appropriate to the topic I am looking for and that is very helpful as it is much more reliable

…” FET student

“… you can definitely see [that the students’ research skills have been affected] in their research trails … the people who have

attended [the library teaching] … have invariably used a better selection of material.” Criminal Law lecturer

- Altered attitude towards librarians

“I’ve … learnt that there are actually librarians to help

you here ... you can actually contact [the librarians] and they do understand how to research Law in the way we

are doing it. So I was quite surprised, I didn’t know.” Criminal Law student

“I think also [the library teaching has] promoted the Library, so therefore, when you do finish university,

there is always your local Library to stroll down to and ask the librarians”

Criminal Law student

- Improved searching competence

- Development of new skills

“I do understand the search engines better, yeah and how to search better and make sure it is more specific,

rather than having extremely large [sets of] results.” Criminal Law student

“now I know how to put in the search words, synonyms, the truncation, that sort of stuff, it is easier to search now, I don’t have to spend hours searching.”

HLS student

“ … I think [my ability to evaluate resources] has changed … being confident, knowing which resource is more

trusted than others … appreciating why they are trusted and why they are not …” FET student

- Wider impact

“In terms of research obviously … through your career, as long as you keep the basic principles in mind of knowing where to look, you can take that with you.” FET student

“[the library teaching] helps towards knowledge on law and … hopefully when we are working as a lawyer it will help us in finding resources and researching better.” Criminal Law

student

“… even if you are going to be searching on a website or Google, you know how to go around it ...” HLS student

Findings: Motivation to Engage - Assessment of skills learnt

“I think definitely, knowing I would have to do this [assignment], knowing I would have to produce a piece of work. I think that

was a key motivator, because if I don’t go I wouldn’t have known what to do …” Criminal Law student

“… students seem to be more motivated if they know they are going to be assessed, theoretically they should all be interested in the subject for its own sake, but in the real world, we know if

we are going to be assessing them …, that will increase their motivation and attendance dramatically.” Legal Method lecturer

- Context and relevance

- Practical elements

“[The library teaching session questions] encourages [students] to actually focus as well in tasks, they know they are going to be studying either one of those questions” Criminal Law student

“... [the thing I liked best about the session was that] we actually did it ... we were given the topic and we were guided through searching different databases.” HLS student

• Additional factors affecting student motivation:

- Advertising the session using Blackboard and via lecturers

- Communicating the value of the session (particularly peer recommendation)

- Timing of the session at a point

in the term when students

are very engaged

- Monitoring attendance

- Attitudes

- Weather/travel

“… my peers were like ‘this is going to be really important for you to go!’ and I was like ‘what’s this about?’, yeah, that’s why I went really.”

Findings: Drivers to Embedding Library Skills Teaching

- The librarian/faculty staff relationship

- Improving student engagement

- Curriculum refresh

“… [approximately] one half of the students that could have come on the [previous library teaching sessions] with us did. So really [the FET LOW] was looking to see if we could get a better return rate on that.” FET librarian

“I think the new curriculum has probably got something to do with the fact that ... it was really opportune ... to introduce something very

practical, giving the students an opportunity to practice what they had just learned, and it all fitted together really well”. HLS librarian

- Ease of implementation

- Better use of staff resource

- Evidence of library intervention success being made available to faculty staff so that they are aware of the library offering

“We are doing quite a lot and our staffing has stayed the same ... but back in 2010 it was cut quite considerably, so it is about us being creative in the way we reach our students ... trying to be more efficient in how we use our time and

resources.” FBL librarian

”I know [the faculty librarian] and everyone spent a lot of time putting it together, but from my point of view it is

great, it was there …[the librarians] do all of the work ... all the marking and put the assessment up and that kind of

thing“ FET lecturer

Findings: Barriers to Embedding Library Skills Teaching

• Lack of staff time and large staff workloads

• Faculty staff attitude: – students already have information literacy skills

– IL skills teaching should be delivered at a single point within the curriculum

– students don’t require IL skills for their particular subject

• Lack of curriculum time

• Lack of awareness of the library offering

• Lack of opportunity to develop staff relationships

Building Partnerships: What We Do

• Inherited relationships

• Attend faculty meetings

• Meet regularly with academic staff

• Librarians on Tour

• Regular library refresher sessions for staff

• New staff ‘Welcome’ emails

• Involvement in induction sessions or IL training for new module leaders

• Library presence in new FBL “Staff Infopoint” Blackboard module

What might you do

differently in future?

What development

do your staff need

in order to rise to the challenge of embedding IL

teaching?

How do you

build relationships

to achieve information

literacy teaching with impact?

What About You?

How do you build relationships to achieve information literacy teaching with impact? Partnering with eLearning staff. Go to them, wherever they are. Building on existing relationships. Newsletters/website to promote service. Team teaching. Monthly email to all new academics. Know where the teaching staff have their social space and be there. Turning any interaction opportunity in a stronger way to connect i.e email to face-to-face. Make your business card indispensible ! E.g. a tea bag – come here, have tea and a chat. Make it hard to throw away Current awareness bulletins and workshops. Skype. Stress that we can save them time, because they are overworked. Has to be face-2-face at least initially – put a face to a name. Can then communicate virtually (distant campuses, academics working from home). Have something they will want to offer.

What might you do differently in future? Restructure -> ‘customer supervisor’ role. Link feedback to Streatfield & Markless themes. Shorter messages emails etc. Try to get library online assessment re-embedded (it used to be there but was taken out in a complete restructuring of the curriculum). Sharing successful practice. Being visible on the right committees. Move away from delegation to collaboration. Go to university/ college events. Look at new teaching programmes e.g. skills. Make friends with admin staff in schools. More structured and strategic approach. Focus groups – to identify user needs.

What development do your staff need in order to rise to the challenge of embedding IL teaching? Knowing your stuff! (Don’t teach if you don’t know it inside out!) Upskilling Assistants and improve confidence to support. Confidence building. Negotiating skills. PTTLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector). Fear of knowledge gaps – joint teaching meets the gap. Up to date teaching practices – technology – pedagogy. Free up staff time and training for new technologies.

Recommendations

• Produce recommendations/toolkit for best practice for building relationships with faculty staff

• Expand the reach of tailored, embedded, assessed library interventions

• Develop UWE’s information literacy framework to incorporate library intervention best practice

• Develop a Library Learning and Teaching Strategy, to include creation of a set of recommendations/toolkit for best practice for library IL skills teaching

Questions?

Sue Shreeve, Faculty Librarian Business & Law, susan.shreeve@uwe.ac.uk

Emma Delaney, Faculty Librarian Environment & Technology, emma.delaney@uwe.ac.uk

www.uwe.ac.uk/library

References • Shreeve, S. et al. (2013) Value and Impact of Librarians’ Interventions on Student

Skills Development (Library Impact and Value For Education and Skills: LIVES) Project: Phase 1 Report [online]. UWE. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/21776 [Accessed 3.4.14].

• Creaser, C. and Spezi, V. (2012) Working together: evolving value for academic libraries [online]. Loughborough University and SAGE. Available from: http://libraryvalue.wordpress.com/report [Accessed 10.4.12].

• Oakleaf, M. (2010) Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report [online]. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Available from: http://www.acrl.ala.org/value/?p=36 [Accessed 10.4.12].

• Markless, S. and Streatfield, D. (2006) Gathering and supplying evidence of the impact of UK university libraries on student learning and research: a facilitated action research approach. International Journal of Information Management. 26, pp.3-15.

• Tenopir, C. and Kaufman, P. (2012) The Lib-Value Project: Value, Outcomes and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries [online]. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Available from: http://libvalue.cci.utk.edu/content/lib-value-project [Accessed 3.4.12].