Doctoral Students' Engagement with Information: An American-Australian Perspective

Green, Rosemary; Macauley, Peter

doi:10.1353/pla.2007.0031

Cited by 54 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…There is a large number of works that make use of self-assessment as a diagnostic method that provides information about students' training perceptions and needs (Green & Macauley, 2007;Colthart, Bagnall, Evans, et al, 2008;Gross & Latham, 2007;Korobili, Malliari & Christodoulou, 2009;Pinto, 2010Pinto, , 2011. This is sometimes used as the main method (Walsh, 2009).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncovering information literacy’s disciplinary differences through students’ attitudes: An empirical study

Pinto

Salvador

2014

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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This paper uses a self-assessment questionnaire (IL-HUMASS) with a wide sample of university students. The questionnaire puts forward a scale of attitudes that aim to measure "belief in importance" and "skills self-assessment" regarding diverse information competences. We use a group of twenty-six information sub-competences gathered in four categories (searching, evaluation, processing and communication-dissemination). The results show some considerable differences in these categories when statistically comparing seventeen university degrees related to five branches of knowledge. It is proved that attitudes appreciably vary between branches, in reverse relation with the interdisciplinary differences we have found. An improvement regarding students' informational attitudes will help reduce the interdisciplinary differences. The results of this case study suggest the feasibility of shared training actions for some information competences in the branches of Sciences, Engineering & Architecture, and Health Sciences. The branches of Arts & Humanities and Social & Legal Sciences show considerable widespread attitudinal differences that advise against that shared training. Keywords: Information Literacy, self-assessment, interdisciplinarity, empirical study, case study. IntroductionThe knowledge of the University of Granada (Spain) on the levels of information competence of its students is highly limited. The situation is indeed similar in most universities in Spain. This is certainly due to the poor relevance that institutions give to Information Literacy training. Nonetheless this scene is changing, and a new awareness, both individual and collective, on the relevance of Information Literacy is arising.A first approach aiming to learn about the Information Literacy levels of our students should not be a sort of traumatic process in which, suddenly, they discover and describe their evident lack of information competence. Instead, it would be preferable to undertake this process so that it may ease the discovery of the poor levels that actually our students have. In the case of Spain, we may assume these poor information competence levels due to the limited training developed in this field. Thus, we think that a first approach to the students should be subjective, trying to diagnose not their levels of knowledge but their attitudes and self-perceptions regarding Information Literacy. That would mean the assessment of the self-perceived competences, which could be an interesting starting point for subsequent objective assessments. Learning about the students' subjective perception of their knowledge would be useful for the development of training proposals, taking into account the subjective components of learning, and the fact that the border between learning and assessment is becoming more and more blurred.If we agree that students from different disciplines usually have different informational attitudes, we need an initial diagnostic self-assessment that could report on their attitudes towards information c...

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncovering information literacy’s disciplinary differences through students’ attitudes: An empirical study

Pinto

Salvador

2014

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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“…Yet contrary to the trend of disintermediation (do-it-yourself), the provision of candidate-specific training has increased (Green and Macauley 2007;Jastram and Zawistoski 2008;Korobili, Malliari, and Zapounidou 2011), as has the research on the topic. While very little was published on the subject in the pre-electronic era, this has changed greatly with the implementation of web-based services including bibliographic databases.…”

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wrangling the Literature: Quietly Contributing to HDR Completions

Warburton

Macauley

2014

Australian Academic & Research Libraries

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Many Higher Degree by Research candidates find the experience of searching the literature overwhelming and stressful. Experienced researchers draw on deep disciplinary knowledge, prior experience, and their networks to locate relevant information and sources. Inexperienced researchers may lack access to internal roadmaps of terms, authors and methodologies and require informed guidance. Advanced information literacy is a critical factor for student success, particularly to support the literature review process, and the need for effective information management skills has never been greater. The quality of doctoral candidates' literature reviews, and their ability to undertake substantive and 'do-able' research is linked. Whilst do-it-yourself ICT and 'Google-like' search engines have led to easier information access, are Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students equipped to effectively navigate through, and manage the plethora of research sources available? This paper shares findings and recommendations of a case study profiling PhD candidate usage of the University of Melbourne Library's research consultation service. The study explored whether consultations conducted at the 'point of need' make a difference in the early stages of PhD candidature and questioned whether consultations contribute to improved research ability and successful outcomes. The paper also questions assumptions made by candidates and supervisors in relation to information-related research skills.

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“…Thus, if we want to market a product, we need to gain "advocates" to help spread the word. Green and Macauley (2007) emphasize that librarians need to understand student needs and engagement in order to understand how to develop information literacy, programs, and services that captivate the users.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic Libraries and Discovery Tools: A Survey of the Literature

Thomsett-Scott¹,

Reese²

2012

College & Undergraduate Libraries

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Discovery tools are becoming increasingly popular in academic libraries, yet there is little information available concerning the tools used regarding their implementation, maintenance, and evaluation, or the tools' effects on public service librarians. Key questions considered through a literature review include the most common tools used, how their effectiveness is evaluated, and user satisfaction data. Readers will learn how public service librarians are involved in discovery tool processes; the usability of discovery tools; and how to incorporate discovery tools into information literacy endeavors.

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Doctoral Students' Engagement with Information: An American-Australian Perspective

Cited by 54 publications

References 21 publications

Uncovering information literacy’s disciplinary differences through students’ attitudes: An empirical study

Uncovering information literacy’s disciplinary differences through students’ attitudes: An empirical study

Wrangling the Literature: Quietly Contributing to HDR Completions

Academic Libraries and Discovery Tools: A Survey of the Literature

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