Todd Gilman

Librarian for Literature in English

Yale University

SCOPA Grant Report

Summer 2002

A Visit with Librarians at the City College of London

St. Bartholomew’s School of Nursing and Midwifery

Introduction

Having located an interesting self-assessment questionnaire on information literacy that Fabienne Michaud of Whitechapel Library, St. Bartholomew’s School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONAM) of City University, London, developed (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/electronic/followupq.htm), I thought it might prove fruitful to meet with Ms. Michaud and a few of her colleagues to compare notes on our bibliographic instruction programs.

Ms. Michaud’s title is Learning Support Assistant and Subject Support Librarian for Mental Health and Community Departments. Her questionnaire is based on the seven "headline skills" identified in an intriguing 1999 SCONUL (Society of College, National, and University Libraries) "vision paper" developed via a Task Force that SCONUL's Executive Board convened (http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/99104Rev1.doc). The paper makes a crucial distinction between "information technology skills" and "information skills," noting that to be computer literate is nothing like the same thing as being information literate, although discussions of "skills" in higher education often assume that one type of literacy equals the other.

In order for a student to become information literate he or she must master seven so-called headline skills, from a basic competence in finding his/her way around a library to sophisticated searching strategies for specific materials. The skills are broken down as follows:

(1) The ability to recognize a need for information

(2) The ability to distinguish ways in which the information "gap" may be addressed

(3) The ability to construct strategies for locating information

(4) The ability to locate and access information

(5) The ability to compare and evaluate information obtained from different sources

(6) The ability to organize, apply, and communicate information to others in ways appropriate to the situation

(7) The ability to synthesize and build upon existing information, contributing to the creation of new knowledge

These seemed to me the right kinds of skills to be trying to impart to under-graduate and graduate students alike. I was interested in learning how the librarians of SONAM at City University, London, have managed to translate these literacy goals into a plan of action for their students; how successful they have been; and what they believe future improvements might entail.

I believed that Yale librarians could learn much from the work our counterparts in London have already done. To cite one example, developing an information literacy questionnaire to deliver to Yale students both before and after their bibliographic instruction sessions might prove to be an effective way both to indicate to students and faculty what we believe students should know to be considered information literate and to indicate to us how well-executed our instruction has been.

I contacted Ms. Michaud and asked her and her colleagues involved in information literacy at the City University SONAM to meet with me for a morning and afternoon while I was in London. They eagerly agreed. We met on Monday 20 May 2002 to discuss (1) how they came to develop their questionnaire and how they use it (for example, what do they do when the results indicate that the client/patron has substandard information literacy skills?); and (2) how they assess and teach information literacy in general at City University, London.

Our Discussion

The Problem

Along with Ms. Michaud I met with Sandra Leitch, Sub-Librarian (Acting), Library Information Services, and Karen Shackleford, IT Learning Facilitator, at Ms. Leitch’s office in West Smithfield. Brendan Casey, Director of Library Services, had planned to attend, but unfortunately had to cancel on short notice. We met from 11am to 3:30 pm.

As it turns out, SONAM faces many of the same information-literacy-related challenges that we at Yale University Library do, especially vis-à-vis training students to use tangible library resources as well as free and fee-based Internet databases effectively. It is challenging for them to find information at all, and far more challenging for them to evaluate information so that they recognize the best resources for their specific purposes, be it answering a question to do with women’s health for a patient or composing a research paper for a course.

SONAM faces the additional challenge of educating their instructors, not just students. The instructors at SONAM are more like the students they teach than Yale instructors tend to be: SONAM instructors are themselves nurses and midwives. These professionals have widely disparate information-literacy competencies. Many of them have been practitioners for twenty years or more yet have not mastered the basics of computer literacy let alone compute-based information literacy. The obstacles to overcome are obviously more onerous when both teachers and students have a similarly limited awareness of and training in information literacy. Finally, SONAM must contend with basic computer literacy among its students and instructors on top of information literacy, not generally a problem at Yale. Compounding SONAM’s problems is the urgency of having all members of this community be able to find the most current and accurate information, especially in the case of working professionals, since lives hang in the balance.

Causes

Both the instructors and the students at SONAM differ from the typical trainee at Yale. Many of the instructors have been practicing the profession of nurse or midwife for some years. They are employed as instructors because they have valuable practical knowledge. They now find that they need research skills in order to keep up with developments in their field, but in the time since they were trained the world of information has changed so much that they are not equipped to function effectively anymore. By contrast, Yale faculty members generally understand how to use our commercial electronic databases and librarian-vetted Internet databases, as well as how they differ from random Internet resources selected from a search of Google or another Web search engine. However, our students, especially our undergraduates, generally do not, and in this respect they are similar to SONAM’s. With a few exceptions our students come to Yale having used only the Web, and only to find free information. Thus they are unaware that the information they find must be evaluated and would have no clear idea how to go about evaluating it even if they were aware. Even when students realize that Yale pays to subscribe to, say, certain full-text resources, they assume that if they find an article online (and using the Yale library’s databases, which implies authority), this online resource is adequate to answer all their information needs. Moreover, even if they know that what they have found does not fit the bill or “get at” the question they seek to address, they will tend to use it anyway, causing the tail to wag the dog, so to speak.

Proposed Solutions

The SONAM libraries at both the West Smithfield and Whitechapel campuses use the Athens Access Management System (www.athens.ac.uk) to provide a uniform interface for their online subscription resources. (See a complete list of Athens-supported databases at: http://www.athensams.net/dsp/resources.html). This interface is similar to the Yale University Library homepage’s “Databases and Article Searching” link. Mode of access is different in that Athens uses individual user ids and password authentication while Yale uses IP address ranges. Akin to Yale’s Web-based tutorials on various aspects of searching, SONAM librarians have created various leaflets and Web-based “helpsheets” and other Web resources that:

· Provide an annotated description of databases available to SONAM affiliates (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/electronic/databasesa-z.htm)

· Explain how to search OVID Biomed (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/hlpovid.htm), Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/electronic/hscinal.htm), and Cochrane (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/hpcrane.htm)

· Suggest ways to get started on research projects

(http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/serguides/studyskills.htm; http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/mod3.htm)

· Describe the ins and outs of a Thesaurus (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/electronic/thesaurus.htm)

· Offer an introduction to Evidence Based Health Care (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/electronic/ebhc.htm)

· Direct City University affiliates to a variety of paid subscription resources including Ingenta, Swetsnet, and JSTOR

· Link to related information on the Web: http://www.city.ac.uk/library/sonm/links.htm

SONAM also has a counterpart to Yale University Library’s “Research Guides by Subject:” http://www.city.ac.uk/library/unilib/subject/subjguide.htm). Moreover, SONAM libraries link to the Joint Information Systems Committee’s Resource Guides for Life Sciences and Health Studies (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/subject/health-life/), as well as to more general academic resources (http://www.city.ac.uk/library/unilib/electron/links/academic.htm).

As for in-person bibliographic instruction, SONAM offers BI sessions that librarians provide to support their programs, notably training sessions for OVID, available daily. As one of their leaflets explains, their training focuses on helping patrons:

· Search effectively and find pertinent health information

· Plan their essays and assignments

· Register to use the computer suites and other electronic database resources

· Use the computer to communicate

· Use the computer to type, format, and print or present work

· Use the computer to generate or retrieve and store files or information

To these ends they train patrons in:

· Using the library catalogue (http://library.city.ac.uk/)

· Developing search skills (manual and electronic)

· Searching electronic health databases including OVID and CD Mapper

· Searching the contents of electronic journals

· Finding health-related information on the Internet

· Evaluating electronic resources

This is all to the good. However, there are limitations to the resources:

· There is no reference desk per se at SONAM

· Bibliographic instruction is not mandatory

· Limited staffing means that if someone desires instruction he or she must make an appointment 24 hours in advance

· The SONAM librarians are not subject specialists in Nursing and Midwifery

· The SONAM librarians do not all have Masters degrees in library science

· The paper-based library holdings of the SONAM libraries are quite modest.

Regarding the last point, fortunately for SONAM’s affiliates, the university’s location and reciprocal access arrangements mean free access to a wealth of additional resources nearby:

· The Royal College of Nursing (http://www.rcn.org.uk/home/home.html)

· The Royal College of Midwives (http://www.rcm.org.uk/)

· The King’s Fund (http://www.kingsfund.org.uk)

· University libraries that are part of the SCONUL network (http://www.sconul.ac.uk/research.htm)

· The M25 Consortium of Higher Education Libraries (university libraries within the area bounded by the M25 motorway: http://www.m25lib.ac.uk/)

· The British Library (http://www.bl.uk/).

By contrast, Yale has reference desks at all major libraries and even some smaller one, so one-on-one instruction is possible without an appointment much of the time the libraries are open, including some weekend hours. We have well-developed and mandatory programs of instruction for English 114 and 115, English Majors, Graduate Students in English (both first- and third-year), History Majors, History Senior Essay writers, and Architecture students. Many Yale faculty also regularly ask Yale librarians to develop specialized instruction sessions for particular (usually upper-level) undergraduate courses. Yale reference librarians are mostly subject specialists with a Masters or PhD in their field as well as an ALA-accredited MLS degree. Among academic libraries, our paper-based holdings are second only to Harvard’s. These differences obviously reflect disparities in library funding levels between City University, London, and Yale University. The differences might also reflect to some extent the relative importance City University and Yale University accord the library in their overall academic mission.

Differences aside, like Yale University Library, SONAM has embarked on a multi-pronged initiative to increase information literacy. As noted above, Ms. Michaud has developed quite a fine information literacy questionnaire. This helps students and teachers alike assess skills. Their Web resources and guides are strong. As far as in-person instruction, SONAM librarians have found it necessary to break down the project into two component parts, recognizing that information literacy and computer literacy are equally crucial but very different problems. They offer training in both but call upon different sets of staff members for computer training and information literacy training.

At Yale we assume a greater level of computer literacy at the outset, and in general I would guess based on my conversation with the SONAM librarians that our faculty are, as a rule, more information-literate than SONAM’s. However, beyond this the challenges are quite similar. Thus it was useful to compare our two strategies. What strikes me as particularly valuable about what SONAM does is both their diagnostic tool and their follow-up sessions with those who come for initial training. While these activities take place on a one-on-one basis at the moment, with faculty support they could be expanded over time to encompass whole classes.

For Yale, with faculty cooperation, we could implement similar diagnostics (pre-tests) and follow-up sessions or Web-based problem sets (post-tests) linked from, say the English 114 or 115 page. If these could be counted toward the students’ class partici-pation grade, students and instructors alike would take library instruction even more seriously than they do at present. Such assessment would ensure that each student actually applies to his or her coursework at least some of what we try to impart, that they in fact learn new skills.

The good news on this front is that Barbara Stuart, Coordinator of the English 114 Program, likes the idea of diagnostics and Web-based follow-up forms and has instructed me to develop and implement the latter for the coming term. She is also encouraging all English 114 instructors to schedule two full class sessions with librarians at different points in the term: one to learn the physical layout of Sterling Memorial Library and Cross Campus Library and possibly do some basic opac searching; the other to work with our online databases to conduct research for their final papers. Let us hope we can convince other program coordinators among the faculty to follow suit!