Presented at LILAC 2022

1. The value of librarian-led information
literacy lessons for Higher Education
students in the Further Education college
environment
Jo Lapham

2. Penwith
College
Catchment
area
University
of
Plymouth
Falmouth
University
Widespread rural
catchment area.
Travelling from the
Lands End peninsular
to either of the
nearest Universities
on public transport
takes a couple of
hours or more.

3. Who studies Higher Education in a
Further Education college?
The majority of HE in FE students
• Come from a deprived areas with a low uptake in
university places (Busher & James, 2020; Parry et
al., 2012).
• Are often first-generation degree-level students
(Parry et al., 2012).
• Are mothers or have other caring duties which tie
them to the area (Avis & Orr, 2016; Dhillon &
Bentley, 2016; Shaw et al., 2017; H. Smith, 2019).
• Have come up through college vocational courses
such as BTECs or through Access to HE courses
(Shaw et al., 2017).
20
4
Did your parents attend university/
have a degree level education?
No
Yes
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Cost and lack of support
Covid
I am a carer
I am a parent
I work locally
I would rather not say
Why was difficult to leave the area for University?
How do students at Penwith compare?

4. Research methods
Aim Method
To discover what IL support is offered to HE students
by librarians at Plymouth Partnership colleges
Mixed methods survey of Partnership librarians
To understand staff perspectives on the value of
IL development on academic success
Mixed methods survey of Partnership librarians
To understand the characteristics of HE in FE students Quantitative data collection student survey
To understand students’ perceptions of the value of
librarian-led IL lessons on their academic success
Qualitative data collection via survey questions and
follow up interviews

5. Question
categories in
the staff
survey
Question category Purpose Question types
Library inductions To understand how other FEIs
undertake inductions
 Are inductions offered?
 Where are they taught?
 Are refreshers offered?
 What topics are covered?
Information Literacy To understand whether other
colleges offer ongoing IL
lessons and of which type
 Whether offered
 Regularity
 Type of lesson offered
 Librarian perception of importance
Lecturer involvement To understand faculty
response to librarian
involvement
 Who creates the lessons?
 Do faculty support librarian-led
lessons?

6. Menti
Go to
www.menti.com
Enter the code on
my screen

7. Results from
the staff
survey
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
No
Sometimes
Yes
Do you offer refreshers throughout the year?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
No
Yes
Does your college run ongoing librarian led information literacy
lessons?

8. The staff
mentioned
similar themes
to those we
concentrate on
at Penwith

9. Initial
question
types in the
student
survey
Question
category
Purpose Question types
Demographics Basic understanding of the
student population
 Gender
 Age
Present
education
To understand where these
students were in their
present study
 Age at which they began this degree
 Year of present degree
Educational
background
To understand previous
levels of study
 Previous highest level of study
Social
background
To understand students’
social background
 Parental education
Choice of
educational
institution
To understand why these
students choose to study at
a local college rather than a
university setting
 Possibility of leaving area
 Reasons for remaining local
 Reasons for choosing Penwith

10. Demographics
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
18-21 22-25 26-35 36-45 46+
How old are you?
8
16
Are there any reasons that made it difficult or
prevented you leaving the area for university?
No
Yes
20
4
Did your parents attend university/ have a degree
level education?
No
Yes

11. Reasons for choosing to
study at the college
Why did you choose to study your degree at Penwith?

12. Questioned
based around
the seven pillars
of literacy
(SCONUL, 2011)
IDENTIFY
When presented with an essay title, how confident are you that you can identify what
materials you need to find to answer the question?
Do you actively seek information in between assignments?
SCOPE How often do you use the library tabs on your Moodle course page?
Do you use Truro and Penwith's online library pages?
How often do you use Primo?
I use databases when searching for materials
PLAN How often do you use the library tabs on your Moodle course page?
If your search has no hits do you …. ?
GATHER How confident are you with finding research materials?
When I am doing an assignment, I look for articles on Primo…
Do you use abstracts to assess an article before reading it?
EVALUATE How confident are you with knowing which materials to use for your assignments?
Are you confident that you can tell the difference between 'fake news' and factual
evidence?
MANAGE It is ok to pass someone else's work as my own
How confident are you with avoiding plagiarism?
Do you feel referencing is an important skill?
Do you use referencing software (such as End Note or Mendeley, for example)?
How confident are you with referencing?
PRESENT How confident are you with essay writing?
Are you able to analyse other people's ideas to support your own work?

13. There appeared to be quite a strong correlation between those
who sought and gained help from the library staff and those
that were confident in finding materials for their assignments.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
More than once a week
Weekly
Monthly
Less often
Never
How often do you use Plymouth Primo?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Look elsewhere
Try different wording
If your online search has no hits, do you ... ?
But online usage was less than adequate

14. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Not very important
Neutral
Important
Very important
Count
Do you feel referencing is an important skill?
0 5 10 15 20 25
No
Yes
Do you use referencing software?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Never
Rarely
Regularly
Sometimes
How often do you use the library tabs on your
Moodle course page?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
No
Not sure
Yes
Are you aware of the difference between
summarising and synthesising new information?

15. The
beginning of
the thematic
table

16. Help from
librarians
Librarians 1 Went ‘the extra mile’ when asked for help.
In a one-to-one – showed him access to eBooks
Found previous year’s reading list before he started the course for
summer reading. Found immensely helpful.
2 Gave her a tip of using an Incognito browser to access Plymouth as
Microsoft 365 on all accounts causing problems.
Liked that when asking for one book we would suggest other helpful
titles.
3 Asked help finding books. Often given suggested titles too. Found her
books she didn’t know existed. Liked Scan-and-deliver during
Lockdown.
4 Help finding books
Reminders for book returns
Has only asked for help finding book not IL
Finds asking for help difficult.

17. Information
seeking
Info seeking 1 Used Google Scholar. Became frustrated as couldn’t access required
articles for free.
Did not cross reference with Primo or college databases to check for
access
2 Used Primo to find journals but often found no hits.
3 Used library catalogue to find to find books, using filters.
Mainly talks about books in the library
Mentions science journals in the library but can only assume she
means New Scientist or Hodder A-level Reviews.
Used introduction rather than abstract to check information in an
article
4 Used databases
Knows about filtering
Understands about changing search terms for hits
Starts with books for theory then uses journals
Uses Google Scholar and Primo
Understands cross referencing to see if Scholar articles available
through Primo

18. “I needed to go to Plymouth and that wasn't an option for me, 'cause I've got children and a husband,
family and a job so it's to go to Plymouth, even twice a week, wasn't an option”
Only one had a true understanding of the reasons behind referencing their work, mentioning “credible
source” and the need to show others where to find the information. The others thought it was mainly just to
prevent plagiarism.
All interviewees found the librarians helped them and admitted they would have appreciated more help
with Information Literacy.
Only one of the respondents understood the research process in-depth, mentioning use of databases,
filtering search results and cross-referencing between Google Scholar and Plymouth Primo.
The interviewees made me realise that, despite being shown our own online pages at induction, they had a
lack of awareness of these and thought I meant the online catalogue.
Search methods were poor in general: “[I] type it into a search engine then it come up with no results and a
lot of the time I gave up, to be honest”
Some points made by interviewees

19. Resulting
actions
I have:
• Changed the induction format
• Created a lesson on referencing software
• Included lessons on databases
• Introduced a library skills workshop into
staff training day
• I am taking a teaching course to improve
my own teaching skills
I want to
• Include more regular lessons to keep
students’ skills up-to-date

20. Recommendations
FE colleges should:
•Employ teacher-librarians
•Include regular librarian led lessons in the HE
curriculum
Eventually FE colleges should:
•Roll out similar lessons throughout the college
starting with the 16-year-olds to ensure a
smooth transition to university or work.

21. References
• Avis, J., & Orr, K. (2016). HE in FE: vocationalism, class and social justice. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 21(1–2), 49–
65. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2015.1125666
• Busher, H., & James, N. (2020). Mature students’ socio-economic backgrounds and their choices of Access to Higher Education
courses. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(5), 640–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2019.1576857
• Dhillon, J. K., & Bentley, J. (2016). Governor and course leaders’ reflections on HE in FE: strategic ambition and curriculum practice in two
large colleges in England. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 21(1–2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2015.1125668
• Parry, G., Callender, C., Temple, P., & Scott, P. (2012). Understanding higher education in further education colleges. In BIS Research
Paper. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32425/12-905-understanding-
higher-education-in-further-education-colleges.pdf
• Mahmood, K. (2016). Do People Overestimate Their Information Literacy Skills? A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence on the Dunning-
Kruger Effect. Communications in Information Literacy, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2016.10.2.24
• SCONUL. (2011). The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/seven_pillars.html
• Shaw, M. P., Peart, D. J., & Fairhead, O. J. W. (2017). Perceived stress in university students studying in a further education college. Research
in Post-Compulsory Education, 22(3), 442–452. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2017.1362534
• Smith, P. H. (2019). Enhancement and constraint: student-mothers’ experiences of higher vocational education, emotion and
time. Cambridge Journal of Education, 49(2), 163–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2018.1483483

22. Jo Lapham
Deputy Team Leader,
Learning Resources
Truro & Penwith College
Email: jolapham@truro-penwith.ac.uk
Telephone: 01736 809020
Twitter: @NW5Jo
@PenwithLibrary