ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Faculty support information literacy

Strong faculty support for information literacy skills was shown by a recent survey of faculty attitudes conducted at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Six hundred faculty in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, medicine, law, and other professions were surveyed. Sixty-six percent responded to questions about their expectations of student library knowledge, attitudes towards librarian’s roles, priorities about teaching and information literacy, and the instructor’s use of the library.

Preliminary analysis reveals that 84% agree that students should know how to do library research and 95% agree that it will be essential to students in later life that they are able to find information efficiently. In addition, 88% agree that librarians and faculty are partners in the educational process. Of particular interest was the fact the 89% of those surveyed agreed that it should be a requirement of the

Baccalaureate degree that students know how to do library research.

These initial results argue that faculty place high value on information skills, a finding which tends to disagree with the perceptions of librarians. Further analysis may confirm that librarians can concentrate on overcoming the other obstacles that prevent the development of information-literate students without worrying about negative faculty attitudes. These obstacles include lack of awareness of instruction programs, lack of available time in the curriculum, etc.

Additional correlations are planned in the study. These will include rank, discipline, and personal experience of the faculty member. Researchers are Elizabeth Frick, professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, and Fran Nowakowski, reference librarian, Killam Library, Dalhousie University.— Fran Nowakowski, Dalhousie University