Collaborative Information Literacy Assessments

Collaborative Information Literacy Assessments: Strategies for Evaluating Teaching and Learning

Edited by Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson, Neal-Schuman, 2010, 242 pp.,

 ISBN 978-1-55570-693-7

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

Catholic Library World, March 2011, Vol.81 Issue 3, p.226.

 

Assessment in higher education is growing more important every day. Educational institutions are pressured by both governing authorities and accrediting agencies to provide evidence that their academic programs produce student learning. Librarians must provide evidence that what they do make a positive impact on student learning. To accomplish this effectively, librarians and faculty must collaborate on the designing, teaching and assessing of information literacy in the curricula. Editors Mackey and Jacobson are recognized authorities in information literacy best practices with two other books on the topic, Technology to Teach Information Literacy(2008) and Information Literacy Collaborations That Work(2007). 

In this new work, Collaborative Information Literacy Assessments (2010) the editors and librarian-faculty teams explore eight models for information literacy assessment in four discipline areas: business, social science, education, and the humanities. The editors write an introduction to each of the four parts. Each chapter follows the same basic format: introduction, literature review, an assessment model for integrating information literacy, a discussion of the collaboration between faculty and librarians, and an examination of the assessment data. Some of the different tools for assessment in this book are: citation analysis, written reports, annotated bibliographies, self-assessments, surveys, multiple choice questions and others. The appendices provide examples of the assessment tools and the tables throughout the chapters illustrate the assessment findings. In addition, each chapter includes a long reference list to explore the topic further. 

The assessment models described in this book have the potential to be adapted to different subjects and settings. For example, the chapter on using citation analysis to evaluate and improve information literacy in an elective finance course at Georgia State University could easily be adapted to another course, a required course in history at the same school or another school. The portability these models will be helpful to librarians seeking to begin or enhance its information literacy instruction program.