This document discusses the information literacy skills needed by college-bound students. It presents data from national and local assessments showing that many students lack proficiency in skills such as developing effective search strategies, evaluating sources, and citing sources. Sample college assignments demonstrate expectations for skills like finding scholarly sources and understanding research processes. The document advocates for teacher-librarian and academic librarian partnerships to help high school students bridge gaps and prepare for college-level work through activities like collaborative research projects. The overall goal is ensuring student success in their freshman year and beyond.

1. College & Career
Readiness
Information Literacy Skills Needed
By College Bound Students
IL

2. I would be interested in one of the following offered
by a teacher librarian and an academic librarian
Mini-conference
Workshop offered at my local AEA
Webinar
Online tutorial
Other
K-16 School Librarian Survey
135 RESPONDENTS
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3. THE FOCUS
Research Skills
College Preparedness
Collaboration
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4. THE OUTCOMES
 Develop pathways for building
academic and teacher librarian
collaborations and outreach projects
 Understand the information literacy
skills expected of students at the
college level
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5. THE END GOAL:
ensure student success in
the freshman year of
college and beyond
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6. Data
What do national and local assessments
tell us about student IL skills?
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7. THE NUMBERS | NATIONAL
 Project Information Literacy
•
•
The average college library had 19x as many
online library databases and 9x as many books
as the average high school library
74% of students said they struggled with
selecting keywords and formulating efficient
search queries, and 57% found it difficult to sort
through irrelevant results from online searches
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8. THE NUMBERS | NATIONAL
 Project Information Literacy
•
•
Most freshmen said their research
competencies from high school were
inadequate for college work
Freshmen had written so few high school
research papers that they had a very limited
understanding of what the research process
entails and how libraries could help
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9. THE NUMBERS | NATIONAL
 2006 ICT Literacy Assessment:
•
•
•
44% identified a research statement that
captured the demands of the assignment
40% entered multiple search terms to
correctly narrow a web search
35% were able to correctly narrow a broad
search
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10. THE NUMBERS | NATIONAL
 2006 ICT Literacy Assessment:
•
•
12% used points directly related to their
persuasive argument in a visual
presentation
>50% did not understand how to take large
amounts of information and sort it for
clarification purposes
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11. THE NUMBERS | LOCAL
 Wartburg College 2009 IL Assessment:
•
•
•
46% recognized that a personal web page is
not an appropriate scholarly source.
49% identified the parts of a bibliographic
citation.
37% did not recognize that writers include
citations when paraphrasing.
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12. THE NUMBERS | LOCAL
 Wartburg College 2009 IL Assessment:
•
•
29% understood the Boolean terms
AND, OR, and NOT
30% of students reported that they had
written 3 or fewer papers in high school that
required citations
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13. THE NUMBERS | LOCAL
 U of Dubuque TRAILS Test:
•
•
Average score percentages were between
61%-69%
Lower scores were found in the areas of
copyright, quoting, paraphrasing, and bias
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14. WEIGH IN:
Given that we have all been teaching
students these skills, how can we work
together to bridge the gap and
improve the data?
What have you been doing?
What have others been doing?
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15. Sample
Assignments
What is required of first-year
college students?
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16. FOR DISCUSSION
 Similar expectations
 Different expectations
 Known issues that would prevent a
student from being successful
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17. WEIGH IN:
What are some of the key
skills/themes within these
assignments?
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18. Collaboration
What does a successful
partnership look like?
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19. I would be interested in working with an
academic librarian in the following ways:
Inquiry lessons
Research skills
Citations
Databases
College preparedness
Lesson plans for instruction
Other
K-16 School Librarian Survey
135 RESPONDENTS
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20. EXAMPLE
 Grand View U + Des Moines Area HS
•
•
•
Help senior AP students prepare for college
Grand View librarians prepared
presentation, activities, handouts
Used college-level assignments
How would I find sources for this?
What parts don’t I understand?
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21. EXAMPLE
 Briar Cliff U + Sioux City HS
•
Video of Sioux City high school student talking about his experience working
with Briar Cliff staff
 Loras College + Western Dubuque HS
 Others??
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22. ACTIVITIES
 AP class research day
 Collaborative English research paper
 Research scavenger hunt
 Future career research project
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23. THE END GOAL:
ensure student success in
the freshman year of
college and beyond
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24. Questions
How can we help you?
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25. CONTACT
Julie Arensdorf
Instruction Services Librarian
Loras College
julie.arensdorf@loras.edu
563.588.7917
Thank you for sharing
your time with me!
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26. REFERENCES
Educational Testing Service. (2006). 2006 ICT Literacy
Assessment Preliminary Findings.
Head, A. J. (December 4, 2013). Learning the ropes: How
freshmen conduct course research once they enter
college. Project Information Literacy Research Report.
University of Washington Information School.
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