Welcome to our introductory page for Project Information Literacy. A feasibility review of Project Information Literacy is now being conducted through May 2008.
This FAQ page discusses plans for the project, as they are now envisioned. If you are interested in becoming involved in this project please fill out our online form.
Frequently Asked Questions
In a few words, what is the Project Information Literacy about?
At what stage is the project now?
Who is leading Project Information Literacy?
What practical impact are the research findings likely to have?
What kind of data will be collected using which methods?
There is a lot of research already about information literacy, how will this study be different?
Where did the idea for Project Information Literacy originate?
Want to learn more about the findings from the exploratory study?
Want to become involved in Project Information Literacy?
In a few words, what is the Project Information Literacy about?
Project Information Literacy plans to be one of the largest collaborative and national research studies ever conducted.
We would study undergraduates' information literacy competencies, as expressed in their own words and through retelling of their experiences. The study would occur across campuses of all types and in many different geographic locations.
At what stage is the project now?
A feasibility review of Project Information Literacy is currently underway and will occur through May 2008. A final decision to undertake the research will be made based on institutional interest in study participation, funding and staff support, and the perceived relevance of the study's findings.
So far, a number of representatives from U.S. institutions have an expressed interest in participating in the "open sample" part of the study (a random sample of institutions is also planned for the project).
Institutions Interested in Voluntary Sample Participation
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If you have an interest in finding out more about the proposed project read Project Information Literacy's latest e-Feasibility Report (PDF, 1.73 MB). If you want to sign up for the voluntary sample, we'd like to hear from you.
Who is leading Project Information Literacy?
Alison J. Head, Ph.D. is Project Information Literacy's Director and will be the Principal Investigator (PI) for the study. She was the PI for the 2007 exploratory information literacy study that was conducted at Saint Mary's College of California (SMC) and the author of subsequent publications about the study's findings.
Head is the Roy and Patricia Disney Visiting Professor in New Media in SMC's Communication Department. She has taught at the liberal arts college for 10 years. Prior to SMC, she taught as a lecturer in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at San Jose State University for nine years.
Head has a MLS and a Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from U.C. Berkeley and studied Human-Computer Interaction at Stanford University, as a Visiting Scholar.
Head is also the Principal and Founder of Alison J. Head & Associates, a research consulting firm in Sonoma, California. The firm conducts usability and product research for Fortune 500 companies and other clients.
What practical impact are the research findings likely to have?
Our hope is that this innovative educational research project will:
- Deliver findings about information literacy from the student perspective (not authorities' standards and measures). Qualitative and quantitative data will be collected that tells about the student research process, through their words and drawn from across a number of different kinds of institutions (i.e., community colleges, state colleges and universities, and private universities).
- Provide data for informing and advancing information literacy initiatives on individual campuses.
- Provide recommendations for increasing students' information literacy competencies through the efforts of professors, librarians, administrators, and those in information industries, such as Google and Wikipedia.
What kind of data will be collected using which methods?
Data would be collected through focus groups and a large-scale student survey with undergraduate students enrolled in community colleges, state colleges, and public and private universities.
We would also perform a content analysis of handouts professors distribute for course-related research in humanities and social science courses.
In turn, we envision making the data sets available on our project Web site, so that it is widely accessible. This way, there would be the possibility of generating a "macro view" of information literacy across private universities, state colleges, and community colleges. The data could have value to administrators, CIOs, librarians, graduate students, and institutional research, depending on their needs.
There is a lot of research already about information literacy, how will this study be different?
Unlike the majority of information literacy research studies, Project Information Literacy is a study "across" different types of campuses (community colleges, state colleges, and public and private universities) and geographic areas in the U.S.
We envision that our data sets will be "open source" and posted on this site for interested parties to freely access and use in their own work.
And lastly, our goal is to help fill in some of the "missing pieces" of the information literacy puzzle and provide data that helps answer some of the following questions:
- How do students (in their own words) put their information literacy competencies into practice in learning environments in a digital age, regardless of how they may measure up to standards for being information literate?
- With the proliferation of online resources and new technologies, how do students recognize the information needs they may have and in turn, how do they locate, evaluate, select and use the information that is needed?
- How can teaching the critical and information literacy skills that are needed to enable lifelong learning be more effectively transferred to college students?
Where did the idea for Project Information Literacy originate?
In 2007, our team of faculty and librarians led a unique, exploratory research project at Saint Mary's College of California.
We studied information literacy through the lens of the students' experience to find out how students conceptualized and operationalized the course-related research process.
The initial "exploratory" study results held some surprises:
- We found the majority of students (87%) *did not* go to Google's search engine first when conducting research as many previous studies have suggested.
- Students *did* use the campus library, library web sites, and librarians, and in fact, relied heavily upon these library sources.
- Overall, students struggled with figuring out what scholarly research actually meant and required them to do. The first step in the research process was often the most difficult one for students.
The next phase, which is this proposed national study called Project Information Literacy, would build upon the team's existing research work.
This research project would have a national focus in order to find out whether the trends we discovered in our original SMC research project are generalizable and if so, in what ways, and if not, how is the larger sample different?
Want to learn more about the findings from the exploratory study?
The full report to Saint Mary’s College (SMC) about the 2007 study is available online.
If you want to read more, findings from our original SMC study were published in First Monday in August 2007: Alison J. Head, “Beyond Google: How Students Do Students Conduct Academic Research?”
You can also listen to a First
Monday podcast about the original study
and plans for Project Information Literacy, which
were posted in February 2008.
Want to become involved in Project Information Literacy?
If you are interested in finding out more about Project Information Literacy, whether you work in an academic setting, or not, or if would like your campus to be participate as we determine the study sample, please fill out our online form below.
Over the next few months, we will continue to inform you about Project Information Literacy's progress and its feasibility.