The document summarizes the results of a survey conducted by a high school librarian of college and university librarians regarding the information literacy skills and tools their institutions recommend for incoming freshmen. Some of the key findings include: citation managers like Zotero are preferred at more selective schools, web-scale discovery services are widely used across institution types, databases like Academic Search Complete and JSTOR are most recommended, and research paper, oral presentation, and digital writing skills are generally emphasized. Plagiarism detection tool use varies by selectivity, and comments emphasized skills like searching, using the library catalog, and understanding the expectation to contribute to a "community of scholarship." The high school librarian plans changes based on this data.

1. Courtney L. Lewis, St. Catherine’s School,
Richmond Twitter: @sassylibr
email:cllewis@st.catherines.org
Website: http://thesassylibrarian.blogspot.com
Is My Senior Ready
To Be Your College
Freshman?
A study of tools and techniques
recommended by colleges and
universities

2. More than the standard info literacy focus
Why Ask These
Questions?
• We know. We KNOW.
• Because many of my questions seem to be
about tools, but they are really about skills.
• This knowledge means more to faculty
coming from college librarians working at the
schools our students attend.
• This data is a jumping off point for curricular
changes with teachers, and budget
discussions with administrators.

3. My Burning Issues
❖ I’m at a new school - why should faculty trust I’m an expert?
❖ Graduates attend a variety of colleges and universities with
which I’m less familiar
❖ Maybe I’m stuck in a rut (i.e. citation styles by department)
and it’s not important
❖ I want to use my budget on tools that will make the biggest
difference in helping students adjust that first year of college

4. What did I need to
find out?
• Web-Scale Discovery Service
• Plagiarism detection software
• Variety of citation styles prior to
arrival?
• Which databases?
• Citation managers: should we go
beyond Noodletools?
• What type of research products
should students know how to
produce?

5. My Questions
• Institution Name and Location
• What citation manager(s) do you teach or
endorse at your institution?
• Does your institution support a web-scale
discovery service for searching across
databases? If yes, which one?
• If you could pick five databases you wish entering
students knew how to use, what would they be?

6. My Questions (Cont.)
• Students are asked to produce a variety of products from
their research. With which formats do you think students
need to be familiar?
• Does your college or university use any of the following
plagiarism detection tools?
• What citation styles do you recommend students be
familiar with upon starting college?
• Do you feel that there are any other key information
literacy points or tools that you would like to emphasize to
high school librarians preparing a college-bound audience
for success?

7. Methodology
❖ I Heart SurveyMonkey!
❖ Post on ACRL InfoLit listserv
❖ Get the last six years of
matriculation data from College
office
❖ Identified librarian who
specifically worked with first
year students in reference or
instruction; sent personalized
letter

8. Who Answered?

9. (Source: US News & World Reports)
Patterns: The
Power of
Selectivity
• 11 Most Selective
• 26 More Selective
• 25 Selective
• 25 Less Selective

10. Citation Generators
❖ Almost half of less
selective schools
used Noodletools
and EasyBib
❖ Seventy-eight
percent of more and
most selective
schools support
Zotero
❖ Selective schools
were most likely to
support RefWorks

11. Web-Scale Discovery Tools
❖ 100% of Most Selective
colleges use one (Summon
edges out Discovery)
❖ 77% of More Selective
schools subscribed (55%
Summon, 25% Discovery)
❖ 82% of Selective schools
use one (43% ExLibris, 26%
Discovery)
❖ 72% of Less Selective
schools subscribe (44%
Discovery, 28% ExLibris)

12. Database Popularity

13. Citation Styles - MLA, Chicago,
APA?
❖ Most Selective and More Selective colleges and universities ranked
familiarity with MLA important at 65%, 41% felt knowledge of APA
important, and 18% felt experience with Chicago/Turabian important.
Thirty-two percent of librarians from these schools felt no particular
style was important.
❖ Selective schools had higher numbers ranking familiarity with a
variety of citations styles more important than most and more
selective colleges
❖ 100% of less selective colleges wanted familiarity with MLA and 79%
felt APA familiarity important. Only 13% of librarians felt
Chicago/Turabian was important.

14. What Do We Ask Students to
Produce?
❖ Traditional Humanities Research Paper
❖ Oral Presentation with Visual Aids
❖ Oral Presentation without Visual Aids
❖ Original Scientific Research with Literature Review
❖ Digital Writing Product (blog post, website, video, etc.)
❖ Creative Visual Product (poster, artwork, etc.)
❖ Artistic Performance (dramatic production, dance, musical
composition)

15. Research Products Overall
❖ Traditional humanities
paper - length of
paper and free choice
of topic?
❖ We ask for oral
presentations and
visual aid facility - do
we teach it?

16. Research Product by
Selectivity
❖ Less selective schools closely mirrored the overall results,
with oral report (no visual aids) slightly outranking creative
visual products and digital writing
❖ Selective schools exactly mirror the overall results
❖ More selective schools rank digital writing much higher,
tied with oral report (no visual aids) for third
❖ Most selective schools are consistent with the overall
results but value humanities papers and oral presentations
with visual aids more, and artistic performances the least

17. Plagiarism Detection
❖ 58% use Turnitin, 14%
indicate teachers “have
their own system”
❖ Less selective schools
were more likely to
report use of Turnitin
(83%)
❖ More selective and
most selective college
librarians indicated
faculty objections to
Turnitin (but also noted
the need for these tools)

18. Free Response Themes
❖ Understand. Ask. Think.
❖ Format is invisible to students.
❖ The number one request? Ask a librarian for help.
❖ That pesky library catalog. They’ll need it!
❖ Skilled searching. Ethical use of information.
❖ Be part of a “community of scholarship”

19. What Am I Going To Do?
❖ Keep gathering data
❖ Inspire discussion about our
information literacy program
(research map)
❖ Get a web-scale discovery
service and rethink my
databases
❖ Get Turnitin
❖ Consider cultural change to
have students belong to a
“community of scholars”

20. Questions or Comments?