Assessing a web library program for information literacy learning
Abstract
Purpose
Main goal in this paper is to show the experience of a web-based program in information literacy from different perspectives: students, teachers and librarians. The study focuses on freshmen in business administration.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical research uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology. A qualitative study is used to analyse the opinions from teachers and librarians, whereas a quantitative study is developed to study the students' perceptions.
Findings
Students find information literacy competencies to be useful and perfectly applicable to their assignments. In this sense, there is no need to provide additional incentives (extra points) for the course. At the light of the work assignments, teachers and librarians suggest that there is a necessity for greater depth in questions of citation and plagiarism.
Research limitations/implications
Results have to be interpreted within the context of study. There is a need to use alternative methodologies and activities in different groups to check and compare the effectiveness of each action.
Practical implications
The paper can be used as a guide for teachers and librarians to develop courses of information literacy. Results obtained from this experience show some key points that may be useful for teachers and librarians.
Originality/value
This article complements previous literature by providing new findings from different angles. The information gathered from the librarians, teachers and students involved provides a holistic view about the effectiveness of web-based tutorials for information literacy learning.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude for the financial support received from the Spanish Government CICYT (ECO 2009-08283; ECO 2011-23027), the University of Zaragoza (PIIDUZ_11_2_091) and the Regional Government and FEDER's funding (Generés S09). The authors would like to thank the Editors and the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Citation
Bravo, R., Lucia, L. and J. Martin, M. (2013), "Assessing a web library program for information literacy learning", Reference Services Review, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 623-638. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-05-2013-0025
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited