Maintaining a reflective journal in the first semester has proven effective in helping students ease the transition to undergraduate studies. In the journal, students provide weekly synopses of their goals, information resources used, and learning activities, as well as any difficulties encountered with research. Reviewing the journal over 12 weeks allows students to see what they have accomplished and provides a positive sense of self. The journals also give faculty and library staff insight into students' existing information literacy skills to better support their development.

1. Dear diary: the value of reflective journals in easing student
transition
Siobhan Dunne, Dublin City University, siobhan.dunne@dcu.ie
Planning an effective information literacy programme for first year undergraduate
students can be challenging. Our ‘new’ students bring with them all the worries and
pressures of modern living; it can be difficult for them to unpack the academic from
the social. Asking students to maintain a reflective journal in the first semester of first
year has proven highly effective in helping to ease such transition. It has also
provided academic and library staff a context within which to gauge and build upon,
existing student information literacy skills.
A programme offered by Dublin City University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences includes a module on Information and Study Skills. Here, emphasis is placed
on the development of information literacy and the module provides an opportunity
for both academic and librarian to collaborate on the development of these skills for
higher education and lifelong learning. As part of their assessment for this module,
students maintain a reflective journal in which they provide a weekly synopsis of their
goals, the information resources they have used and the learning activities they have
undertaken. Students have to outline difficulties encountered with research, with
particular emphasis on differences with previous learning.
Importantly, students have acknowledged the positive aspect of the journals in helping
them to organise their time and be productive; many have reported that they see the
difference between their intentions and what they actually accomplish. On reviewing
the twelve weeks of the journal, students see that they have accomplished a great deal,
thus providing a positive sense of self in relation to transition to HE. This paper will
pinpoint how the reflective journals have both helped students to cope with their
changing information environment and encouraged faculty staff to collaborate more
closely with library colleagues on skills development.