This study was designed to inform the renaming of a credit-bearing information literacy course. Researchers surveyed librarians to gather existing information literacy course titles. They also surveyed and held focus groups with students to learn what students consider when choosing electives, to understand how well the researchers' current…

Based on a comparison of two nearly identical surveys in 2010 and 2016, this study examines the deepening practitioner concern over the use of social tagging within digital collections during the past six years. While participants reported a greater level of experience and increased use of social tagging, concerns regarding control, consistency,…

This article presents the results of a study of academic e-books that compared the metadata and search results from major academic e-book platforms. The authors collected data and performed a series of test searches designed to produce the same result regardless of platform. Testing, however, revealed metadata-related errors and significant…

The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education calls on librarians to teach complex concepts rather than discrete skills, but many librarians have struggled with implementing such teaching. This article reports on a revised lesson for information literacy instruction in First Year Writing classes, created using Grant Wiggins and Jay…

This paper explores possibilities for marrying data visualization to online archival finding aids, which have continually suffered from usability issues in their long history. This paper describes a project in which two different data visualization models were built to replace sections of an archival finding aid. Users were then shown the models,…

Recognizing the importance of designing educational opportunities that draw upon students' prior knowledge and experiences, this paper uses focus groups to explore how Spanish-speaking students in a graduate program at the University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence understand academic information literacy practices within their new cultural contexts.…

Qualitative analysis of reflective essays by first-year students in an academic skills course documented outcomes related to the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Student narratives showed how novices encounter the clusters of concepts described in the Framework as…

This study assesses and compares the quality of sources found by undergraduate students when doing research using both Google and a library (federated) search tool. Thirty undergraduates were asked to find four sources (one book, two articles, and one additional source of their choosing) related to a selected research topic. Students used both…

This study examines the information-seeking behavior of undergraduate students within a research context. Student searches were recorded while the participants used Google and a library (federated) search tool to find sources (one book, two articles, and one other source of their choosing) for a selected topic. The undergraduates in this study…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of simple and expert searches in Google Scholar (GS), EconLit, GEOBASE, PAIS, POPLINE, PubMed, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Sciences Full Text, and Sociological Abstracts. It assesses the recall and precision of 32 searches in the field of later-life migration: nine simple keyword searches and 23…

As the use of the Ohio State University Libraries interlibrary services has increased, there have been more requests to borrow items that are already available to patrons locally, often in electronic format. Patterns relating to why patrons could not find locally available materials were identified in the record of canceled interlibrary requests…

This paper reports on a study of the development of information searching expertise by 12 postgraduate research students. Six of the students were studying education, and six were studying engineering. The paper focuses on the students' perception of the importance of searching skills and the growth of their knowledge with these skills as they…

In spring 2005, a task force of Oregon State University librarians investigated whether undergraduates would gravitate toward subject portals tentatively named "virtual college libraries." A literature review and Web site inventory shaped our definition of a virtual college library. A preliminary needs assessment consisting of an online…

A usability study was undertaken at Penn State University to explore how students search the library's online catalog after they have received library instruction. In 2004, eight first-year students received library instruction and were subsequently recruited for the study. Participants were recorded using the online catalog, and a think-aloud…

Discusses the role of consortia in academic libraries, specifically the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL), and describes a study conducted by the IDAL that investigated issues surrounding full text database research including stability of content, vendor communication, embargo periods, publisher concerns, quality of content, linking and…