Longitudinal Information Literacy Research Study Toolkit: Supporting Research

Important resource using qualitative methods to conduct BIPOC student research to learn from their experiences. Includes necessary DEI background and insights for things to consider when doing this type of research project. Especially the insight to use interviewers that aren't white librarians. Highly recommend all librarians read this!

Essential resource and a must read to gain many important ideas for future equity focused studies.

Details throughout the document help you think through future project considerations and goals. Good inspiration for working with the partner institutions and things to cover during meetings. Such as, Univ of Cal "Anti-Racism Learning and Reflection Tool" and Renee Wells "Self-Assessment Tool Anti-Racism" is worth exploring further.

Important to remember what not to do during research studies. See the 4 points on Deny, Diminish, Dismiss, and Devalue

Learning environments and sense of belonging in the classroom and community. Build upon students' values and prior knowledge. Further inspiration for learning more about our BIPOC student learning experiences and how we can adapt to their needs.

This was recently updated to incorporate DEI principles. Really important for all librarians conducting assessment to read before starting a project.

Study conducted in 2014. Methods were focus groups with 13 students and a survey with 103 participants. Interesting details mid-article about their survey recruiting and administration process. Fascinating thing to think about - when students with multiple languages switch from using one that is their primary to another for different situations. Including thinking about the different versions of English and Spanish used depending on where you learned those languages. (p. 640) Good point about needing to develop signs and documentation for users in multiple languages. (p. 626 and 641) Also this quote: "Interactions with foreign-born students should focus on communicating and not correcting." p. 638 Good suggestions for instruction services and training for staff on p. 642.

Inspiration for larger study plans: "Future research in a naturalistic setting that collects longitudinal data over the course of a research assignment would balance the findings from our task-based simulation study. This would provide an understanding about whether students’ information behavior changes over the course of their research assignments and if so, when, how, and why." The article shares insights into using task-based research simulation to explore IL concepts with students. Also has good ideas that can be used in instruction, such as on page 148: "Another way to help students contextualize preprints within the information lifecycle is through the use of experiential learning like the scaffolded approach employed by Scheifele, Tsotakos, and Wolyniak (2021) where students compared and contrasted a preprint article with the final version, reflecting upon the differences." and "...providing guidelines for students that help them determine whether or not they have the expertise necessary to vet and correctly use a resource and choosing not to use it if they do not."

Overview of a bunch of research projects related to information literacy in college and beyond. If you're looking for past projects to help you generate new ideas, start here.

See examples for how to organize a research log assessment with guided questions for students and categories for analysis. Inspiration: look into how to gather the log with an app (iPhone and Android). Automatically collect data about the student's research process with coding for analysis. Create tags or boxes to select like "keywords" or "searching". Incorporate gamification elements to keep students interested in adding details.

This study is from 2013 into 2014, so not very recent, but it serves as a good example for gaining perspectives of those we serve.

IMLS funded ARL collaborative project around a central set of research questions. Good best practices for engaging in a flexible project with multiple partners with different interests. Such as having assessment consultants, grouping the partners by similar interests to work together, having someone beside the PI keep groups on track, having some in-person meetings to create synergy and excitement, and many other lessons learned we could use. No applicable learning assessment was done by the institutions, except in special collections and archives. Probably worth quickly browsing their full reports for additional ideas.

This chapter provides a lot of insights on what to focus on when completing a data focused project across multiple institutions. Such as norming definitions of what it means to be retained, the need to exclude summer students, and those who completed early. It also describes ways to keep drilling down into different quantitative methods to check the validity your results from different angles. It serves as an excellent model for how to write a methodology that makes sense to a layperson audience. See also O'Kelly et al's 2023 article focused on GVSU in C&RL.

Good examples of what to include in a toolkit to support collaborators.

Good follow-up to the Oakleaf 2018 report. Provides a summary of privacy practice issues and suggestions for how to approach working with learning analytics responsibly. Also provides suggestions for training and points out mistakes librarians have made along the way. Important insight: Allow students to opt out of selected learning analytics you want to use during your study.

IMLS funded project. Provides argument for and ways librarians should be more involved in institutional learning analytics initiatives. Provides lots of thought-provoking and organized details on studying learning analytics from multiple angles – resources, services, facilities, stakeholders, etc. Many ideas for research questions for this and other studies. Along with great outlines for what to do once you’ve done the study. The whole Instruction Scenario 2 section starting on p. 30 has many worthwhile things to consider. The charts for User Stories starting on p. 38 are also worth browsing. The Beginning with the End in Mind chart on p. 86, and the following worksheet pages are worth examining.