Presented at LILAC 2023.

1. Workplace Information Literacy
Readiness: What do Employers
Think?
Heather Howard, Associate Professor & Business Information Specialist
Margaret Phillips, Associate Professor & Engineering Information Specialist
Jiahong Wang, Undergraduate Business Student & Office of Undergraduate
Research (OUR) Scholar
David Zwicky, Associate Professor & Chemical Information Specialist
LILAC April 19-21, 2023 Manchester, UK

2. About Purdue
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27 Astronauts
Purdue University
• West Lafayette, IN
• Public research university,
founded 1869
• ~50,000 students
• ~200 undergraduate
programs; >80 graduate
programs

3. Daniels School of Business
Enrollment: 4,346 (3,109 undergraduate,
1,150 graduate, 87 doctoral)
#30 US News & World Report Overall Best
Undergraduate Program 2021
7 undergraduate programs
9 specialized master’s programs
5 MBA program options
3 Ph.D. Programs (Economics,
Management, & Organizational Behavior
- with multiple options to specialize)
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4. Research Team
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Margaret Phillips
Associate Professor
Engineering Librarian
Heather Howard
Associate Professor
Business Librarian
Dave Zwicky
Associate Professor
Chemistry Librarian
Jiahong Wang
Undergraduate
Business Student &
OUR Scholar

5. Scope of Research
◎ Based on previous work investigating business and
engineering students' experiences with information in
the workplace (Phillips et al., 2022, Phillips et al., 2020)
◎ Investigate employer perceptions of the information
literacy skills of recent business school graduates
◎ Investigate employer perceptions of digital badges
Phillips, M., Howard, H., & Brewster, G. (2022). Examining business students’ workplace information use during internships and co-ops. Journal of
Business & Finance Librarianship, 28(1), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2022.2137973
Phillips, M., Fosmire, M., Schirone, M., Johansson, C., & Berry, F. (2020). Workplace Information Needs of Engineering and Technology Graduates: A Case
Study on Two Continents. 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274276
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6. Theoretical Framing
◎ Head, A. (2012). Learning curve: How college graduates solve information problems
once they join the workplace. Social Science Research Network, 2165031.
doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2165031.
◎ O’Brien, K. L., & Jacobson, T. E. (2018). Teaching with digital badges: Best practices
for libraries. Rowman & Littlefield.
◎ Raish, V., & Rimland, E. (2016). Employer Perceptions of Critical Information
Literacy Skills and Digital Badges. College & Research Libraries, 77(1), 87-
113. doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.1.87.
◎ Sandstrom, P. E. (1994). An optimal foraging approach to information seeking and
use. Library Quarterly, 64(4), 414–449.
◎ Pirolli, P., & Card, S. (1999). Information foraging. Psychological Review, 106(4),
643–675. doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.643.
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7. Workplace IL Modules
◎ Developed by Libraries and Engineering Technology faculty
members, on an internal Innovation Hub grant
◎ Implemented with micro-learning, micro-credentialing approach
to instruction, using the university's LMS platform
◎ Worked with students, faculty, employers, and employers to make
the content applicable for new graduates entering the workforce
◎ Five modules: Information gathering, competitive intelligence,
patents, industry standards, and informed communication
◎ sites.lib.purdue.edu/workplaceil
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8. Research Questions
RQ1: What are employer perceptions of
information literacy skills/needs of business
graduate new hires?
RQ2: What are employer perceptions of micro-
learning/digital badging/micro-credential
modules and approach?
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9. We worked with the Krannert Professional
Development Center (KPDC) and reviewed the
top 30 companies that hire our graduates.
Employers were selected in order to maximize
the areas of study hired and the KPDC reached
out them on our behalf.
Conducted four 45-60min interviews with
large, multi-national employers who hire and
manage Daniels School of Business graduates.
◎ Each interviewee watched a 45-minute
online information literacy module prior to
the interview
Methods
◎ We asked questions regarding specific
information sources used, information tasks
completed, and information challenges faced by
new hires
◎ We also discussed employer perceptions of the
information literacy module and of digital
badging as a whole
Created transcripts from the recorded interviews
Coded documents for themes
Purdue IRB #2022-1235
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10. Interview Questions
1. What are typical entry level positions you hire graduates
of Business and Management undergraduate programs
into?
2. What do new hires typically do well when it comes to
locating, using, and managing information?
3. What typical struggles do they have in locating, using, and
managing information?
4. What expectations do you have for their abilities to locate,
use, and manage information in the workplace?
1. What types of information do they need to know
how to use?
2. What do they use the information for?
3. How well do they apply information
appropriately?
4. How well do they find high-quality information to
answer their needs?
5. Can you give some examples of the kinds of problems
these new business graduates hires need to solve on the
job?
6. How can students be better prepared for the
work environment when it comes to their
information skills? For example, are there any activities
you think graduates should do during their university years
to train their ability to locate, use, and management
information?
1. Can you think of any particular assignments
or projects that could be integrated or
modified during a student’s academic career
that would better prepare them for the information
needs of the workplace?
7. What on the job training do they receive with regard
to navigating/using information?
8. Does your organization have a library or
technical information center? If so, can you briefly describe
its constitution and the services it provides?
9. What were your perceptions of the information
literacy module you viewed prior to this interview?
10.Is a digital badge something your company would find
valuable or useful?
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11. Code Book
Initial Codes (Phillips et al., 2020)
1. Gathering Information
1. “”Hard Skills” - Pre-existing
sources – articles, videos,
internal reports, etc.
2. “Soft Skills” - Interpersonal
information gathering
1. Intercultural
2. Situational
2. Evaluation and Synthesis
3. Use of Specific Types of
Information
4. Learning
1. Classroom
2. On the job
5. Navigating Internal Systems
6. Satisfaction with New Hires
1. Note this also
includes dissatisfaction with
new hires
Emergent Codes
◎ Badge perception
◎ Data
◎Privacy
◎Security
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12. Preliminary Results
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Interesting Findings
◎ All employers discussed the importance of human sources of information
○ “The willingness to go outside of their comfort zone and some of the
interpersonal skills to have those one-on-ones and be willing to lay it out
there and say, “You're the expert. Teach me about it. Let me understand,
how do I go from point A to point B type things?”
○ “The biggest struggle is when they interact with people, so colleagues
within the company, how do they approach... I think because they're so
familiar with the online doing independent, making the connection of who
to go to for what kind of information becomes a little bit of a struggle
sometimes”

13. Preliminary Results
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Interesting Findings
◎ Employers discussed the importance of intercultural competencies
○ “[R]eviewing the module, one thing that was important was, you talked
about the cross-cultural kind of learning and all of that. That's important. I
think it was good to understand how the cultures react or our structured
differently, but oftentimes for me, at least, where we are a global company
and we look at global possibilities, global market size is global market
trends, it's hard once it becomes that global in nature, so how do you
really go out? The way you extract information in different countries are
different, and there's the language and other things, and then also this
cultural piece comes in as well, as our world becomes more country-
agnostic or globally efficient in a way. ”

14. Preliminary Results
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Interesting Findings
◎ Multiple employers discussed the importance of data privacy
○ “These days a lot more around the awareness of PII, the personal
identifiable information and privacy that is huge within our company.
[…]so having understood the privacy information, privacy and what to use
is a foundation of these before we can even use the information. So we
often talk about the skill set of collecting, but having that base
understanding of how to use it, or if either we can use it or not, it becomes
very important because you can collect a really good information, but if
you're tripping on some of the aspects you can use it. So that's one thing
that we've been pretty vocal as a company to all employees, including
hires.”

15. Preliminary Results
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Interesting Findings
◎ There were mixed reviews on digital badges as a concept
○ “What we would look at, and I'm saying this because we also try to
establish a digital badge based on analytics of skilling and things like that.
At the end of the day, we believe it's demonstrated the ability of that
catalyst to how they present that information and then clearly
communicating the process of which they've approached it, that to us is
already a proof that... That's good. Having that badge ahead of time in
knowing about it, our culture at [Redacted Company] will probably not put
too much weight on it, to be honest”

16. Limitations
- Pilot study
- Four employers
- Small sample, not generalizable
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17. Initial Insights
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- On the whole, employers are happy with the information skills of new
hires
- Employers emphasized the importance of lifelong learning
- Implications for librarians and IL practice
- Integrate human sources of information into instruction
- More focus on data literacy and data privacy
- Encourage students to focus on what they learn and to integrate
that into conversations with potential employers. This means more
than some credentials.
- Employers are a valuable voice in informing classroom IL needs
- More research needed on student employment information experiences
& learning and business employer expectations

18. Next Steps
- Complete full analysis and publish results in a journal
article
- 2023-24 OUR Project: Extend the project and interview
additional employers; focus on what we learned this
year, e.g. Human sources of information, data privacy.
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19. Thanks!
Any questions?
Heather Howard, howar198@purdue.edu
Margaret Phillips, phill201@purdue.edu
Jiahong Wang, wang4903@purdue.edu
David Zwicky, dzwicky@purdue.edu
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