A study to determine the inspirational books, articles or web resources shaping the learning and teaching philosophy of attendees at the 2009 LILAC conference
A presentation given at the Centre for Information Literacy Reserach seminar on 6 August 2009 at Sheffield University Department of Information Studies.
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A study to determine the inspirational books, articles or web resources shaping the learning and teaching philosophy of attendees at the 2009 LILAC conference
1. A study to determine the
inspirational books, articles or web
resources shaping the learning and
teaching philosophy of attendees at
the 2009 LILAC conference
David Brown and George Davies, 6th August 2009
2. Presentation outline
Introduction
Research context
Relevance of this study
Methodology
Results
Organisation of annotated bibliography
Conclusions
Recommendations
3. Introduction
Project carried out as part of assessment for ‘Information
Literacy Research’ module on MA Librarianship
programme
Distribution of questionnaires to attendees at 2009
LILAC conference
Responses categorised and used to create an annotated
bibliography of inspirational items
4. Aim and objectives
Aim:
To determine the inspirational books, articles or web
resources for attendees at the 2009 LILAC conference
Objectives:
To design and administer a questionnaire at the LILAC
conference
To synthesise attendees’ responses and collate statistics
To produce a categorised annotated bibliography
5. Research context
Annotated bibliographies used to highlight key resources
in given subject area
Few examples of bibliographies with annotations provided
by respondents
Annotations generally addition of the author rather than
external contributors
Most are extended literature reviews
Tend to focus on professional literature
This study a useful example of a collaborative
bibliography, reflecting shared experiences and insight
6. The LILAC conference
The LILAC conference encourages debate and knowledge
exchange across IL practitioners (LILAC, 2007)
Predominantly attended by UK practitioners (Glass, 2007)
This year’s conference held in Cardiff
287 people attended the conference
1:4 split of men to women
65 male attendees and 222 female
7. Brier and Lebbin’s study
Study follows on from a previous project by Brier and
Lebbin (2006)
Asked attendees at the 2006 LOEX-of-the-West
conference to provide details of two books (fiction or
non-fiction) which influenced their instruction activities,
teaching philosophy or meaning of education
8. Relevance of this study
Brier and Lebbin’s study asked only for books
This study looked more widely at inspirational books,
articles and web resources
Reflects wider knowledge base for information literacy,
highlighting the spectrum of resources available
9. Methodology
Questionnaire with mixture of closed and open questions
Distributed in person at LILAC, during morning break and
lunch on the middle day
Respondents given introduction to the topic and
information sheet
Participants represented convenience sample
As many attendees as possible approached within project’s
time constraints
Some respondents preferred to reply via email after
considering their response
Email addresses noted and follow-up emails sent
10. Instrument design
Questionnaire designed to be easy for respondents to
complete quickly, during conference breaks
Especially important in the narrow window available for this
research
Questionnaire format chosen for ease of distribution,
both at the conference and in subsequent email
communication
Reflected original study by Brier and Lebbin (2006)
11. Choice of questions
Questions chosen to gather information about
respondents and resources
Useful to contextualise resources chosen by participants
Gender of respondents included to compare results with
overall gender balance at LILAC
Sector spread of attendees also observed
LILAC predominantly aimed at HE practitioners (Glass, 2008)
Useful to reflect background of other respondents
12. Research question
What book, article or web resource do you think
has been the most inspirational on your learning
and teaching philosophy?
Designed to reflect personal and professional interests
Important to remove focus from the word ‘instruction’
(used in Brier and Lebbin’s study)
Not widely used within UK education
Respondents asked to explain reasons for choosing
particular items
Richer responses could be more easily categorised
13. Limitations of a questionnaire approach
Difficulty posed by the question
Many respondents found difficult to answer on the spot
Opportunity to leave contact details, followed up with
electronic questionnaire
Choice of categories for resources potentially too
narrow
Some items (reports, models etc.) neither books nor articles
Labelled as web resources, but might be more beneficial to
expand categories
Difficult to categorise some items – would have facilitated
final data analysis
14. Participation
30 responses received
25 questionnaires completed in person, a further five
received via email
Limited email response
23 emails sent
Only four followed by questionnaire responses
Also received one unexpected email response
Another three emails received
These individuals unable to select one particular item which
they found inspirational
Expressed interest in final results of the project
15. Data analysis
Responses tabulated and statistics created to highlight
distribution and characteristics of population sample
Annotations categorised in a similar fashion to the
themes created by Brier and Lebbin (2006)
Two bibliographies, one organised by theme and the other by
reason for selection
Statistics formulated to show frequency of items in each
category
16. Results – gender mix of participants
30 responses: 6 male participants, 24 female
Male
Female
17. Results – sector split of participants
22 responses received from HE practitioners
2 from FE, 1 from the public sector, 5 students
25
20
15
10
5
0
Higher Further School library Health library Public sector Private sector Student
education education
Sector
18. Results – type of resource
13 books, 5 articles and 12 web resources
Book
Article
Web resource
19. Organisation of annotated bibliography
Main bibliography organised by themed sections, within
which items are organised alphabetically
Follows methodology used by Brier and Lebbin (2006)
Used “seven genres of instruction inspiration” (Brier and
Lebbin, 2006: 608) to categorise items
20. Choice of bibliography themes
Categories designed and attributed to each item in
alphabetical list to reflect the important themes
Particular categories highlight purpose and topic coverage
of each item – chosen to structure bibliography’s content
Approaches to education
Databases / resource directories
Fiction
Information skills
Library contexts
Personal philosophy
Teaching design
21. Frequency of bibliography themes
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Approaches to Databases / Fiction Information skills Library contexts Personal philosophy Teaching design
education directories
Bibliography theme
22. Analysis of bibliography themes (1)
‘Information skills’ most frequent theme
Almost one-third of responses
Close correlation between information literacy and
information skills training
Other categories (fiction and library contexts) not cited
as highly
Trend might reflect original research question, which
encouraged more professional literature
Most frequently cited items generally relate to learning
and teaching strategies
23. Analysis of bibliography themes (2)
Results match Brier and Lebbin’s (2006) survey fairly well
280 responses – ‘Learning potential’ (78 items), ‘Teaching tools’
(56 items)
Categories reflect most frequent categories in this study, i.e.
‘Information skills’ and ‘Learning design’
Relative lack of fiction items
Brier and Lebbin reported 49 items in ‘Fundamental truths’
(third highest category)
Study asked specifically for choice of books
This study ranged more widely, many resources did not fit the
‘Fiction’ category
24. Content of annotations
Bibliography also constructed to highlight reasons why
respondents chose particular items
Categories reflected content of responses, drawing out
important reasons and motivations
Current awareness
Ease of use
Informative content
Knowledge
Personal qualities and success
Practical advice
Thought-provoking
25. Frequency of reasons for selection
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Current awareness Ease of use Informative content Knowledge Personal qualities Practical advice Thought-provoking
and success
Reason for selection
26. Analysis of reasons for selection
‘Practical advice’ and ‘Knowledge’ most frequent
Reflects need for practical, insightful resources
Highlights specific nature of original research question
Reflects choice of the word ‘inspirational’
‘Informative content’ not as heavily cited
Many respondents highlighted the importance of content, but
often not the most important reason
27. Conclusions
Respondents prioritised books, although web resources very close
Lasting importance of printed literature for current practitioners
Articles not highly cited as inspirational items
Influenced by ambiguities between articles and web resources
The most common theme in the bibliography was ‘Information skills’,
followed by ‘Databases and directories’
Most common reason for selection was ‘Practical advice’
Profession’s need for current, organised and manageable information
IL practitioners seek convenient and informative resources, tailored to
specific needs and teaching programmes
28. Recommendations
Study relatively limited, on one day at a single conference
Larger timescale and population to enrich future research
Study focused on HE
Significant expansion of research into public and health libraries
Research across different conferences would allow
comparison of results from different areas and sectors
Differences between the LILAC and LOEX-of-the-West
Different research question might also offer different
results and conclusions
Broaden to encourage non-professional literature
29. Future of this research project
Annotated bibliographies produced for this project will
hopefully be useful for information literacy practitioners
and information science departments
Useful reading list of materials relating to information
literacy
Could form part of teaching strategies in this area
Resources and annotations useful for authors and
teachers in the field as a tool for improving teaching
methods
Summary and basic bibliography are available online:
http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/brown-davies-2009.pdf
Annotated version possibly to be published as an article
30. References
Brier, D.J. and Lebbin,V.K. (2006). “Ike loa: a list of influential
books shaping the instructional librarian’s teaching and learning
philosophy”. Reference Services Review, 34 (4), 607-643.
Glass, B. (2007). “LILAC Conference 2007”. New Library World,
108 (11/12), 565-566.
Glass, B. (2008). “LILAC 2008 in Liverpool, European Capital of
Culture”. New Library World, 109 (11/12), 587-588.
LILAC (2007). LILAC – About Us [Online]. London: Librarians’
Information Literacy Conference.
http://www.lilacconference.com/dw/about_us.html [Accessed
31 July 2009]