Janice Graham Newkirk Research Award Reports

Past Recipients

Mary Cahill and Sheryl LaGuardia Report from the Winter 1999 Newsletter

Steve Black Report from the Winter 2001 Newsletter

James Nichols, Barbara Shaffer, Karen Shockey Report from the Fall 2002 Newsletter

Susan Zappen Report from Fall 2003 Newsletter

Jane Kessler, Linda Loeser, & Mary Van Ullen Report from Winter 2004 Newsletter

Holly Heller, Report from Winter 2004 Newsletter

Reports

Cahill & LaGuardia: Technology & Librarians' Image

Mary Cahill from Union College and Cheryl LaGuardia from Harvard were the 1997 awardees. Following is their report of activities supported by the award:

On behalf of Cheryl LaGuardia and myself, I extend sincere appreciation for the $500 award conveyed to us by the Janice Graham Newkirk Award Committee in October 1997. Please share this message of gratitude with the members of the Committee and the Graham and Newkirk families.

The Newkirk grant provided an opportunity for us to begin research on the question of whether technology is changing the librarian's image and also provided funds to attend the 28th Popular Culture Association and 20th American Culture Association Annual Join Conferences on April 8-11, 1998 in Orlando Florida.

It was here that we presented our preliminary findings in a paper entitled "From Buns to Bytes: How Technology is Changing the Librarian's Image." Ours was one of four papers in the panel, "Libraries & Popular Culture: Changing Technology, Changing Stereotypes?"

It was a truly energizing experience to be launched on our topic the first day of this gargantuan venue where more than 400 scheduled panels explored the panoply of topics which defines the study of Popular and American Culture. Both Cheryl and I had the opportunity to speak and our presentation was well received according to moderator Doug Highsmith.

Interestingly, our findings were not supportive of our original thesis. We found only one well documented instance in the popular literature to support the idea that technology is changing the image of librarians in popular culture, i.e., the former Batgirl, who, after suffering crippling injuries, employed technology to transform herself into an information goddess to the Super Heroes, known as Oracle.

What we found instead was the increasing dependence on electronic information technologies in libraries and the almost universal availability of unmediated access to information via WWW may in fact be contributing to a radical redefinition of the concept of "librarian" and "libraries." We were even persuaded to ask ourselves the disturbing question: "Will the concept of 'librarian' disappear altogether?" We continue our study and continue to acknowledge the support that the Newkirk Award provided for its initiation.

Mary Cahill
Reference & Interlibrary Loan
Schaffer Library
Union College

Nichols, Shaffer, and Shockey: Pilot Project: A Comparison of Online vs. In-Class Learning

Approximately one and a half years ago, our team began creating an online tutorial based on a tutorial created by Ulster Community College for use by all SUNY schools. Our intent was to create an electronic alternative to our standard English 102 introductory library research classes.

In addition to designing a tutorial, the team also wanted to research the effectiveness of learning using an online information literacy tutorial versus traditional lecture/demonstration sessions for English 102 classes. It was for expenses of this research that we received the Janice Graham Newkirk Research Award.

Three questions we considered were: 1) Will the students learn from information literacy instruction? 2) Will they learn as much or more from the module than they do from traditional in-class instruction? 3) Will the students like the web-based module better than in-class instruction?

Our target population was English 102 students. During the fall 2001 semester, three professors were recruited to participate in a study involving six sections of English 102. Three sections were taught using the online tutorial, and the remaining three were taught traditionally. Prior to the class sessions, librarians met with the classes to explain the process, and indicated that students completing all three portions of the study (pre-test, instruction - either in-class or online, and post-test) would receive a small ($5.00) cash compensation. Students were also required to sign an informed consent form, in compliance with human subjects guidelines.

All students completed a multiple choice pre-test before receiving instruction. During instruction, online students were asked to complete a variety of built in practice exercises. Traditional in-class students were asked to complete a worksheet. A total of 64 students returned to take the post-test and were also asked to complete a brief attitudinal survey inquiring as to their confidence, perceived level of learning, and preferences as to the mode of instruction they received. Pre and post tests had been loaded into Topclass, a course management program, so statistics could be compiled from it at a later date.

The results of the Penfield study supported those of similar studies. We found that indeed learning does take place with both online and in-class instruction, and that learning achieved with the online tutorial is generally equal to that experienced with an in-class presentation. The level of preference, confidence and learning was found to be similar for online and traditional groups. It was also almost evenly split as to which mode of instruction students would recommend.

In response to these results, we continue to offer and expand on this online tutorial. This spring (2002) is the "breaking in" period for use of the tutorial in English 102 classes. Next fall, English 102 classes will continue the shift to this mode of instruction. The tutorial is also freely available through our library homepage for anyone wishing to learn or review basic library research techniques (http://www.oswego.edu/library/tutorial). Future plans call for more online library instruction units to be inserted into distance education courses. At present, we are creating "mini-tutorials" for more focused units of instruction. A general periodicals tutorial is in the works, and more units are planned for specific databases such as ERIC, Lexis-Nexis, and ABI Inform.

We are sharing the results of this study through posters and presentations at the Northeast Regional Conference on Excellence in Learning and Teaching: Beyond Chalk & Talk - Enhancing Student Learning in Higher Education, the Conference on Instructional Technologies, and the SUNY Librarians Association .

We wish to thank ENY-ACRL and the grant committee for your support of our project, and welcome any inquiries about our study.

James Nichols, Barbara Shaffer, Karen Shockey

Penfield Library 

SUNY Oswego

 

Steve Black: Level of Information Literacy among Undergraduates

Thanks to the Janice Graham Newkirk Fund Award, Steve Black led a research project to explore the current level of information literacy among undergraduate students at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.  A brief summary of the findings appears below. 

Summary of findings:

100 undergraduate volunteers took an 18-item assessment of their information literacy skills from late October through early December, 2000.

The average score was 11 out of 18 (61%) correct responses.

The average scores of freshmen (60.1%), sophomores (62.1%), juniors (61.3%), and seniors (63.6%) were not significantly different.

Based on the assessment, at least 80% of the participants knew:

That librarians at the College of Saint Rose create the Library's web site

What Interlibrary Loan is, and how to make an ILL request

The definition of copyright

To check the accuracy of a web page by comparing it with other information

How to find the call number for a book

How to find the e-mail address for the reference desk

Based on the assessment, less than 50% of the participants knew:

That the tool used to find the location of books is the "online catalog"

To look in the Reader's Guide for a citation to a magazine article published in the 1940's

To use WorldCat to identify books outside the library's collection

To look in an encyclopedia, almanac, or dictionary for a specific question about copyright

Susan Zappen: Library Services for Remote Users

Skidmore College has both students and faculty living off campus. Some live within commuting distance. Others live and study throughout the United States and the world. The Janice Graham Newkirk Research Grant allowed me to travel to France to meet with Skidmore's students studying in Paris. I wanted to meet with them face-to-face to hear directly about their library needs as students studying abroad.

Skidmore has an office in Paris with a computer lab that allows students to keep in touch with their families via email and provides access to Skidmore's Lucy Scribner Library. The students I met with were all third year students. They had all used the Scribner Library during their first two years on the Skidmore campus. They were comfortable navigating from the library web pages to the electronic resources they needed.

Skidmore's students in Paris take classes at different universities. French professors conduct classes at the Skidmore Paris office as well. Because Skidmore's students are not recognized as fully registered students by any of the French universities, they are not given library privileges. The Director of Skidmore in Paris informs the professors teaching at the Skidmore office about the student-library situation. The office does provide a small collection of general information/reference books for the students.

The Skidmore students use the public library located in the Centre Pompideau. They are not given borrowing privileges but can use photocopy machines. When I visited the library, I found it to be bustling with activity and full of people. All of the computers were in use. The staff members at the information desk were friendly and helpful when I asked (in faulty French) for directions.

The greatest frustration for the students in Paris is their inability to borrow books. Our library has some electronic books. However, our e-books are not likely to support the coursework of those students in Paris or the other international programs. It will be some time before there is a critical mass of scholarly books available electronically that will meet the variety of student needs in international programs.

Unable to resolve the book-borrowing problem, I looked for another way to provide students with scholarly information. Interlibrary loan is heavily used on the Skidmore campus. Users submit all requests electronically using a form on the ILL web page. Mailing requested articles to other countries accommodates the needs of the students in the University Without Walls or Masters in Liberal Studies programs, but it does not meet the more immediate needs of undergraduates abroad with a research paper due.

I read about Prospero, an open source system for Internet document delivery, on one of my listservs. With Prospero, libraries are able to convert electronic documents received on Ariel workstations to PDFs, send them to a web server, and email the requestor to view or print out the articles using a web browser. In essence, Prospero allows libraries to promptly provide interlibrary loan of articles to students and faculty no matter where they reside. And Prospero is free.

Skidmore began using Prospero on June 30, 2003. The Interlibrary Loan Supervisor asked for volunteers among our heavy ILL users to test the system. Because 70% of our requested articles are sent to us electronically, we will be able to use Prospero for the majority of our article requests. Prospero not only provides better library service to our remote users, but it also improves the library service to community members on our campus.

Jane Kessler, Linda Loeser, & Mary Van Ullen: Study of Bibliography Software

We would like to thank the committee again for the award funds we received and provide you with an update on our research project.

We are doing a comparative study of online and pc-based software programs that create bibliographies. We purchased one pc-based product, EndNote, and subscribed to 2 online services, Noodletools and Easybib. We also purchased a copy of the Publication Manual of the APA.

Student bibliographies from information literacy classes at the University at Albany were used to generate 100 random sources. We created citations for these sources in each of the 3 programs. We are in the process of analyzing the results to determine the accuracy of the citations and to document differences among the programs. To date, we have observed substantial differences among the citations generated from the programs as well as some discrepancies with APA guidelines. We made notes on the usability and features of the programs. We have also completed a survey of ARL member web sites to determine if, and how, these institutions are supporting bibliography-generating software.

The next phase of our project is to write an article discussing our findings, which we plan to submit to Research Strategies. We also plan to prepare a tip sheet for students detailing resources to help with creating bibliographies. We hope to give a presentation about our project at an appropriate conference. We have also discussed creating a demonstration workshop for students.

Jane Kessler 
Linda Loeser 
Mary Van Ullen 
University at Albany Libraries 
September 30, 2003

Holly Heller: On- and Off-Campus Use of Published Literature

I collected my first student papers last spring, their bibliographies were copied and the data was collated late in the summer, and I am now looking at the results. The award allowed me to hire a student assistant, Marie Laude, a senior from Brooklyn, majoring in social work. Marie learned a lot about research design and research paper bibliographies during her work! She entered data into an Excel spreadsheet that I created. The sample size of 41 is very small. While the data shows apparent differences between on and off-campus students use of published literature, there is no statistically significant difference when the two-tailed T-test is used. For example, while on-campus students as a group cited 13% more journal articles than off-campus students did, the difference would have to be over 26% to be significant with this small sample size. My plan is to complete the analysis for the spring data and collect more data this fall and next spring. If there are no significant differences between groups in the different semesters I will aggregate the data set and complete the analysis. I look forward to sending the committee another preliminary report by December, and a final report in the fall of 2000. I sincerely appreciate the support of the committee, ENY/ACRL, and the Newkirk family for the opportunity to begin this research.

Holly Heller
October 1999