Editorial

Required reading

The fourth issue of the RSR volume year has long included an annotated bibliography of the year’s literature on the topic of information literacy (IL). This bibliography continues to provide an excellent overview of the theory and practice in the field and seems to always point us to works we had overlooked or forgotten in our professional reading and skimming activities. It is always among the top five most downloaded articles that we publish. “Library instruction and information literacy 2015” (Reynolds, McClellan, Finley, Martinez and Linares), again this year highlights the scholarly and professional literature on library instruction and IL-related topics. This year’s bibliography includes 488 English-language publications of interest to all library types, and it is separated into categories, including academic, medical, legal, public and school libraries.

The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education is the topic of two articles in this issue. “A constellation to guide us: an interview with Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe about the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education” (Bombaro, Harris and Odess-Harnish) provides insight into the perspective of a national leader in the IL arena. As the introduction to this article notes, Hinchliffe’s “experience as past president of ACRL and her involvement as a panelist in the Delphi study that informed the Framework provides her with valuable insight regarding ACRL policy-making, the development of the Framework, and its broader intention”.

In “The framework is elitist”, author Bombaro presents a critique of the Framework, questioning both its adherence to the Threshold Concept theory and the roll out of the Framework by Association of College and Research Libraries. We anticipate that the Framework will increasingly figure in future articles on IL in RSR.

In “A Survey of information literacy credit courses in USA academic libraries: prevalence and characteristics” (Cohen, Holdsworth, Prechtel, Newby, Mery, Pfander and Eagleson), the authors address a gap in the research by providing a detailed snapshot of IL credit courses, including percentages of libraries that offer credit courses, the number of credits offered, the audience and how public institutions differ from private nonprofits and for-profits.

Two articles in this issue look at user behaviors in the digital environment. In “Buy, borrow or access online? Format behaviors among college freshmen in a reading-intensive course”, author Mizrachi reports on her study of reading behaviors of a freshman class in a reading-intensive course; her research questions are: “What are students’ actual format behaviors in a reading intensive course; Is there a relationship between students’ behaviors and their final grades in this class; and, Is there a relationship between students’ behaviors and their Writing SAT scores?” In “Is the need for mediated reference service in academic libraries fading away in the digital environment?”, Bandyopadhyay and Boyd-Byrnes explore whether the digital information environment has impacted reference service.

In this issue, and in those forthcoming, RSR will continue its focus on trends impacting library service. Look for a special issue devoted to transfer students in the months ahead.