College Readiness in Information Literacy in the Professional and Scholarly Literature The following studies were accessed via EBSCO database searches of Academic Search Elite, ERIC, Library Literature & Information Science Full Text as well as Google Scholar. Entries are organized into two categories: 1. Descriptions of high school-higher education collaborations. 2) Studies of what students know and/or need to know about information literacy to be successful in college work. Only titles available in full-text online are included here.

K-16 Collaborative Programs: What programs have been reported demonstrating collaboration between Secondary schools and higher education institutions in the area of information literacy? Angell, K., & Tewell, E. (2013). Collaborating for Academic Success: A Tri-Institutional Information Literacy Program for High School Students. Public Services Quarterly, 9(1), 1-19. Full text accessible via Google Scholar. This article describes a nearly decade-long partnership among three institutions representing school, public, and academic settings in Westchester County, New York. The program, designed to improve the academic performance of local high school students, features extensive student contact with academic librarians during the school year, including two day-long orientations and individual consultation sessions. The article identifies best practices and key factors for academic libraries that are considering or currently providing instructional and outreach activities to high schools. Boyer, B. L. (2015). Collaborative instructional design for college readiness. Knowledge Quest, 44(2-), 60-65. Full text from ERIC in EBSCO. High school seniors' success in making the transition to college hinges greatly on their ability to perform college-level research. Kutztown's (PA) project serves as an example of embedded library practice to improve senior students' readiness for college-level research. This article presents a description of this collaborative process, discusses what was learned, curricular implications, and what lies ahead. Burhanna, K. J., & Jensen, M. L. (2006). Collaborations for success: high school to college transitions. Reference Services Review, 34(4), 509-519. Full text accessible via Google Scholar. The paper seeks to provide an overview of innovative high school to college collaborations and initiatives at Kent State University Library. These collaborations and initiatives may serve as models and resources for future academic library high school to college programs. This paper may serve as a guide and point out considerations and resources to both academic and high school libraries interested in exploring, expanding or establishing high school to college transition programming. Fuller, C., Kearley, D., Byerly, G., & Ramin, L. (2014). Community collaboration for inquiry success. Knowledge Quest, 43(2-), 56-59. Full text from ERIC in EBSCO. This article describes how Donna Kearley, Denton ISD library services coordinator, and Annie Downey, department head of UNT Libraries Research and Instructional Services, worked to positively impact both student performance and career readiness by using a spiraled K-20

1

information literacy curriculum integrating an inquiry process. Lessons, projects, and resources are being added to the units, providing quick access to resources. Martin, C. M., Garcia, E. P., & McPhee, M. (2012). Information literacy outreach: Building a high school program at California State University Northridge. Education Libraries, 35(1-2), 3447. Full text from ERIC in EBSCO. Although many high school students appear to possess basic abilities in retrieving information, they often lack the critical evaluation skills needed to succeed at the college level. The authors provide a case study of an outreach effort between an academic library and an urban high school during challenging budgetary times. Lessons learned from the development of their information literacy instructional program and the instructional tools created are discussed.

Needs Assessment: What do students know and/or need to know to be prepared for college-level information work? Carbery, A. a., & Leahy, S. s. (2015). Evidence-based instruction: assessing student work using rubrics and citation analysis to inform instructional design. Journal of Information Literacy, 9(1), 74-90. Full text accessible from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts in EBSCO. This paper presents the findings of a study carried out by librarians in Champlain College who developed a two-pronged authentic assessment approach to measure the information literacy (IL) levels and determine the information seeking habits of students while conducting research for academic purposes. Librarians devised and developed an IL rubric and a citation analysis checklist for the assessment of first-year annotated bibliography assignment papers. Donham, J. (2014). College ready--What can we learn from first-year college assignments? An examination of assignments in Iowa colleges and universities. School Library Research, 17. Accessible at http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol17/SLR_Colleg eReady_V17.pdf This paper delineates characteristics of first-year college assignments through a qualitative analysis of college faculty assignment instructions. Three themes emerge from the analysis: information literacy, especially initiating inquiry; academic writing, especially citing evidence in support of a thesis; learner dispositions, especially curiosity, open-mindedness, self-reliance, and perseverance. Findings have implications for high school library programs and high school teachers as well as librarians working with first-year college students. Fitzgerald, M. A. (2004). Making the leap from high school to college. Knowledge Quest, 32(4), 19-24. Full text accessible in Academic Search Elite in EBSCO. Presents studies about information literacy skills of first-year college students, including a description of entering information competence skills of California college students from a largescale study.



2

Head, A. J., Eisenberg, M. B., & Project Information, L. (2010). Truth be told: How college students evaluate and use information in the Digital Age. Project Information Literacy Progress Report. Project Information Literacy, [Accessible at http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED535166] A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent evaluators of Web and library sources used for course work, and to a lesser extent, of Web content for personal use. Students reported difficulties getting started with research assignments and determining the nature and scope of what was required of them. Overall, the findings suggest students use an information-seeking and research strategy driven by efficiency and predictability for managing and controlling all of the information available to them on college campuses. Holliday, W., Dance, B., Davis, E., Fagerheim, B., Hedrich, A., Lundstrom, K., & Martin, P. (2015). An Information Literacy Snapshot: Authentic Assessment across the Curriculum. College & Research Libraries, 76(2), 170-187. Full text accessible in ERIC in EBSCO. This paper outlines the process and results of an authentic assessment of student work using a revised version of the AAC&U's Information Literacy VALUE rubric. This rigorous assessment, which included the scoring of nearly 900 student papers from four different stages across the undergraduate curriculum, revealed much about the process of authentic assessment of student learning, the struggles and competencies of our students, and a clear path forward for improving practice. It also gave us a broad view of student learning, allowing us to immerse ourselves in student work and providing a stronger narrative to share with stakeholders. Jeffryes, J. and Laferty, M. Gauging Workplace Readiness: Assessing the Information Needs of Engineering Co-op Students. Accessible at http://www.istl.org/12spring/refereed2.html?a_aid=3598aabf The goal of this study was to get a better idea of the practical information needs that undergraduate engineering students could expect to encounter in the workplace. Kovalik, C., S. Yutzey, and L. Piazza. (2013). “Information literacy and high school seniors: Perceptions of the research process.” School Library Research 16. (Accessible at http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol16/SLR_Infor mation_Literacy_High_School_Seniors_V16.pdf ). To better understand how high school students apply their information literacy skills when conducting research and how these students carry out research projects, researchers asked a group of 289 high school seniors to complete an information literacy survey related to the research process. Results indicate the study participants were able to use library resources to locate and use information, that they used a variety of resources, and that they considered themselves successful library users. However, participants voiced a need for help in deciding which resources are best to use and how to identify important information from those resources. Nelson, K., Courier, M., & Joseph, G. W. (2011). An Investigation of digital literacy needs of students. Journal of Information Systems Education, 22(2), 95-109. Full text accessible in ERIC in EBSCO.

3

This paper describes the results of a survey of teaching faculty at a medium-sized university in the southeastern United States to determine core curriculum items that should be taught to ensure that graduates have the capabilities and skills to fully participate in the digital society. There was considerable agreement between the colleges regarding the importance of twenty aspects of digital literacy. A case can be made for additional topics to be included in the curriculum common to all students such as ethics, security and privacy, and how to validate the relevance and usefulness of data. The study also highlights the need for discipline-specific topics to be embedded in subject-knowledge courses. Oakleaf, M., & Owen, P. L. (2010). Closing the 12-13 gap together: School and college librarians supporting 21st Century learners. Teacher Librarian, 37(3), 52-58. Full text accessible in Academic Search Elite in EBSCO. The writers discuss the use of a syllabus study by two college librarians at North Carolina State University to close the gap between high school and college. The study considered first year students' syllabus to ascertain which skills and dispositions are required to perform inquiry-based research. Owen, P. 2010. “A transition checklist for high school seniors.” School Library Monthly 26 (8): 20–23. Full text accessible in ERIC in EBSCO. This article outlines specific skills college students and school librarians can use as the basis of a checklist for high school seniors transitioning to college Purcell, K., et al. 2012. How teens do research in the digital world. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. (Accessible at http://www.pewinternet.org/files/oldmedia/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_TeacherSurveyReportWithMethodology110112.pdf ) Overall, teachers who participated in this study characterize the impact of today’s digital environment on their students’ research habits and skills as mostly positive, yet multi-faceted and not without drawbacks. Among the more positive impacts they see: the best students access a greater depth and breadth of information on topics that interest them; students can take advantage of the availability of educational material in engaging multimedia formats; and many become more self-reliant researchers. At the same time, some teachers worry about the difficulty many students have judging the quality of online information; the general level of literacy of today’s students; increasing distractions and poor time management skills; students’ potentially diminished critical thinking capacity; and the ease of “borrowing” from the work of others. Relles, S. R. & Tierney, W. G. (2013). Understanding the writing habits of tomorrow’s students: Technology and college readiness. The Journal of Higher Education, 84, (4), pp. 477-505. Full txt accessible in ERIC in EBSCO. This article reports on a study analyzing the digital skills of 91 low-income students enrolled in writing remediation. Findings suggest that technological demands widen the equity dimensions of the college preparation gap by aggravating the academic challenges remedial writers already face. Suggestions to support the compound literacy needs of 21st century students are made. Note: All commercial databases listed for access to full text are available via the State Library of Iowa Online Resources.



4