Chicago Area Instruction Librarians Meeting

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Chicago Area Instruction Librarians Meeting

• September 26, 2003
• Loyola University

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Project SAILS

• Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy
  Skills
• Patricia Cloud
• Roosevelt University Library

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What is SAILS?

• The purpose of the Project for Standardized
  Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS)
  has been to develop an instrument for
  programmatic level assessment of information
  literacy skills that is valid and thus credible
  to university administrators and other academic
  personnel. We envisioned a tool to measure
  information literacy that
• Is standardized- Contains items not specific to
  a particular institution or library- Is easily
  administered- Has been proven valid and
  reliable- Assesses at institutional level-
  Provides for both external and internal
  benchmarking
• --SAILS project description

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Why do this?

• we realized that if university administrators
  were to be persuaded to allocate resources
  necessary for us to grow our information literacy
  program, then we must be prepared to substantiate
  the claim that these skills indeed make a
  difference institutionally
• --SAILS project description

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Why do this, pt. 2

• We asked What are students' entry skills upon
  admission to the university, and is there a
  significant change in skill levels from the
  freshman year to graduation? If there are
  significant changes in students' information
  literacy skills, do those skills then have any
  correlation to student's academic success and
  retention? A thorough search of the library
  literature revealed that our profession was not
  yet in a position to agree upon the best method
  for assessing those skills, let alone assert they
  make a difference.
• --SAILS project description

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Why do it at Roosevelt?

• This tool will enable librarians to clarify for
  themselves and their institutions what role, if
  any, information literacy plays in student
  success and retention.
• --SAILS project description

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Who is sponsoring SAILS?

• Association of Research Libraries
• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
• Kent State University
• Participating testing institutions

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Project Timeline

• Fall 2001, testing of orientation students at
  Kent State University
• Spring 2002, item review and development testing
  at Oregon State
• Fall 2002, grant received from Institute of
  Museum and Library Services for continued
  development and testing ARL endorses SAILS as an
  activity within the Learning Outcomes Working
  Group

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Project Timeline, continued

• Spring 2003, Kent State signs partnering
  agreement with ARL, to collaborate on 3 phases of
  testing Phase I testing at University of
  Arizona, Auburn University, San Jose State
  University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
  State University, Washington State University,
  and Weber State University, among others
• Fall 2003, Phase II testing begins. 40
  institutions participating
• Fall 2004, Phase III, planned testing at 100
  institutions

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Phase II participating institutionshttp//www.pr
ojectsails.org/plans/p2list.html
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Roosevelts role

• Call for participants, Spring 2003
• Commitment to test 200 students
• Front end (php, mysql) to communicate with
  SAILS/Kent State serverno tech support
• IRB approval

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IRB issues

• Confidentiality of encrypted identifiers
• Retrieval and use of individual data (age, race,
  sex, GPA, ACT)
• Informed consent
• IRB application and approval

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Practical problems

• Collaboration with Institutional Research
• What to use as a unique identifier?
• Security/storage of datawhat kind of lists would
  we be building?
• Who would be tested?
• How would the testing be done?

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Finding test subjects

• Focus on undergraduates at early point in
  academic career
• Focus on two programs composition and critical
  thinking classes
• Agree that testing would precede any library
  instruction for all classes
• Agreement to participate was voluntary,
  instructor by instructor

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Test administration

• Chose highly monitored but other options exist
• 1 totally online class is participating
• Requires library staff member to monitor each
  test administration
• Expect 200 tests to be completed by mid-October

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Benefits to the library

• Experience administering assessment instruments
• Building faculty relationships
• Building culture around assessment
• Institutional credibility on assessment

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For more information

• For a general introduction, see
  www.projectsails.org
• For a list of publications, see
  http//www.projectsails.org/publications/index.htm
  l