Roger Schonfeld of Ithaka S+R and Kate Lawrence of EBSCO co-presented a talk at the Charleston Library Conference on the topic of students success, learning outcomes and the role of librarians and faculty in teaching information literacy skills.

1. Seeing That Students Succeed:!
Rising Expectations and the !
Library’s Role in Teaching and Learning
Charleston Library Conference
November 4, 2016
Roger Schonfeld, Ithaka S+R @rschon
Kate Lawrence, EBSCO @bykatelawrence

2. What do we mean by success?
Not just information literacy,
and not just GPA
Retention
Progression
Completion
Later life outcomes

3. Why Focus on Student Success?
Defining success of the
university
Federal and state policy
agendas
University leaders and faculty
members are refocusing on
this priority

4. Institutional Transformations
Source: Jessie Brown and Martin Kurzweil, Institutional Transformation for Student Success (Ithaka S+R, 2016), !
available at http://www.sr.ithaka.org/publications/institutional-transformation-for-student-success/
Committing to a student-centered
mission and strategic plan
Collaboration around student
success. Aligning structures,
resource allocation, and
personnel to the strategic plan
Using data to continuously
improve

5. About the Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey
Conducted since 2000 by Ithaka S+R, focused on US faculty
A periodic snapshot of practices and perceptions related to
scholarly communications and information usage
The scholar-centric nature of the questionnaire ensures that
potential changes in research and teaching inform our thinking,
not only about academic libraries and scholarly publishing,
but about changes in the educational enterprise more broadly

6. Increased interest
IN SUPPORTING STUDENTS
Please use the 10 to 1 scales below to indicate how well each statement below
describes your point of view:
My undergraduate students have poor skills related to locating and evaluating
scholarly information.

7. Increased interest
IN SUPPORTING STUDENTS
Percent of respondents who strongly agreed that their undergraduate students have poor skills
related to locating and evaluating scholarly information.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
UK
US
2012 2015

9. Source: Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2010; US Library Survey 2013

10. Students & Faculty:!
The EBSCO Research
College/University students are a consistent area of focus for
EBSCO User Research Group
Faculty Ethnographic study underway now – per librarian request and
also key influence on student research habits
Emerging themes: information literacy skill development,
faculty-library/librarian partnerships, digital ecosystems

11. Recap: US Student Workflow
Decide topic
and angle
Open Web
Search
Paper
Due
“Serious” Research
(Library Resources)

12. Key Differences: Chinese & US Students
Chinese students conduct research in episodes. Throughout process
students are accessing open web and scholarly sources. In constant
contact with faculty member and librarian. Opportunity for impact
throughout duration of assignment.
US student research is in
2 microbursts: (1) at outset of
assignment and (2) 20% of total
assignment time before it is due “when my
adrenaline is pumping”. Opportunity for
librarian to inform and guide is at outset/
first microburst of activity.
Researcher: Lin Lin, EBSCO

13. Information Literacy Responsibility: !
Insights
Previous research told us that an active partnership between faculty
member and librarian where the librarian co-teaches the research modules in
the classroom with the faculty member (not in the library) is powerful.
Example from the most current EBSCO
faculty study: Scavenger hunts for students
as exercises in skill development “Find x
results and take a screenshot and email it to
me.” Conducted via Skype. “It never
occurred to me to ask the librarian to
help this student.”

14. Faculty & Librarians!
More Insight
Spectrum of needs: Adjunct Instructors feeling “hung out to dry”.
Faculty aren’t as aware of library resources as they could be.
They appreciate dedicated services like book or document delivery direct
to their offices, but many have little awareness of the availability of
librarians to provide instruction to their students or even to support them
in their own research.
Studies in the UK about “how to ask” – should apply to students and faculty
Researcher: Deirdre Costello, EBSCO

15. Digital Ecosystems: Faculty Members
Faculty habits are significantly different from those of students. Students’
habits and expectations are derived from the open web. Sites consistent
with open web experiences gain student’s trust.
Faculty habits are based on mental models of how information is
organized; workflows and expectations are often very personalized and
unique and many products and tools don’t suit these users’ needs.
Examples: Citation manager, sharing/downloading processess.
Faculty comfortable with “tried & true” methods, less focused on efficiency.
Faculty members rooted in familiar habits are teaching information literacy
skills to students seeking shortcuts and efficiencies.
Researcher: Deirdre Costello, EBSCO

16. Discussion

17. Thank you
Roger.Schonfeld@ithaka.org
@rschon
klawrence@ebsco.com
@bykatelawrence