Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Although librarians are experts in finding the best research practices and
resources, including new technology, it is a discouraging finding that most of the
students surveyed do not consider librarians as resources when seeking help. Even
though students use library resources and services, especially e-resources, they mostly
prefer to exclude librarians from the research process. (The PIL study (2009)
identified a similar finding in the context of web resource evaluation [4]).
Additionally, it should be noted that postgraduates are less likely to consult librarians
than undergraduates are. Istanbul University's library organization and employment
can partially explain this finding. While the Central and faculty libraries tend to
employ professional librarians, the departmental libraries (which are under
functioning) tend to employ mostly non-professional librarians. Naturally, this
situation causes students to develop misconceptions about the role and the value of
librarians, resulting in students excluding library staff from their research. This
highlights an urgent need to raise the profile of professional librarians in the student
community, as well as the need for regular training and refresher courses for non-
professionals. Restructuring Istanbul University's library systems should also be
reconsidered.
As found in previous studies students often evaluate web resources for course-
related research [4], [5]. In their evaluation, students are more likely to use criteria
such as resource reliability and currency of information, although format and
convenience are nearly as important to them. Though there was no observed
relationship between discipline and criteria used, it was shown that undergraduate
students are most likely to select the criterion of convenience when evaluating web
sources for research suitability. On the other hand, although students say they
evaluate web resources in general, they have trouble using evaluative criteria. For
example, determining the credibility of a website or finding an article in the library's
research database is difficult for the majority of students.
Although the majority of the students state that they use specific routines and
techniques for conducting research, the problems they experience while researching
suggest that these routines cannot always help them overcome their difficulties. For
example, most students had great difficulty defining and narrowing a research topic,
as well as starting the paper. It is particularly noteworthy that these first three
difficulties and their order of importance are consistent with previous studies [3].
Notably, social science students seem to have more difficulty starting their
assignments than other students. The Association of College and Research Libraries
(ACRL) cites Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives [12] with regard to the
need for recognizing different levels of thinking skills associated with teaching and
learning information literacy outcomes. According to the ACRL, lower-order thinking
skills are associated with standards for devising and using an effective search strategy,
while higher-order thinking skills are associated with synthesizing information “to
create new concepts” [13]. With these concepts in mind, our findings suggest that
students need assistance with higher-order thinking skills associated with information
synthesis.
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