Faculty perceptions of information literacy skills: an investigation at the Florence University Campus of Social Sciences
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-04-2021-0028 |
| Published date | 11 January 2022 |
| Date | 11 January 2022 |
| Pages | 362-377 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
| Author | Rosaria Giangrande,Alessandra Cassigoli,Eleonora Giusti |
Faculty perceptions of information
literacy skills: an investigation
attheFlorenceUniversity
Campus of Social Sciences
Rosaria Giangrande,Alessandra Cassigoli and Eleonora Giusti
Biblioteca di Scienze sociali, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
Abstract
Purpose –The Florence University SocialScience Library has for some time been engaged in courses for
information literacy (IL),but so far, there has been a lack of collaboration with teachers.This study aims to
investigateteachers’perception of students’IL skills.
Design/methodology/approach –The qualitative investigation was based on semi-structured
interviewswith 24 faculty members of the Florence UniversitySocial Sciences campus.
Findings –Knowledge of the IL frameworks is not widespread among the teachers of the campus, but
following the discussion,most of the interviewees came to acknowledge its certainvalidity. The teachers tend
to attributean insufficient level of information skills to the bachelor’sdegree students, a good level to master’s
degree and a more positivelevel to the postgraduates. They express appreciationof the training activity of the
library, but they, nevertheless,still tend to consider librarians, as their more traditional role would suggest,
only as bibliographic research experts. No one seemed to believe librarians possess those training
competenciesthey would need to get involved in teaching curricula.The recognition of the work that has been
accomplished up to now represents foundations for an increasingly necessary partnership. There is an
awareness, however, that a suitablestrategy which requires determination and initiative will be difficult to
implement.
Originality/value –This study represents one of the few contributions on the perception of IL skills by
facultymembers in Italian universities.
Keywords Academic libraries, Librarians as educators, Assessment, Library instructions,
Information literacy frameworks, Information literacy skills, Perceptions, Faculty staff,
Faculty members, Students learning, Italy
Paper type Research paper
1. The context
The Library of Social Sciences, inaugurated on 9 February 2004, is situated on the campus
which houses the Departments and Schools of Law, Economics and Management and
Political Scienceat the University of Florence.
It has about 900,000 volumes, in large part with open shelf access, and it houses the
universities periodicalscollection and the European Documentation Centre. The building,on
three levels, has an area of 13,000 m
2
, with about 1,000 workplaces and a trainingroom. The
primary users currentlynumber over 12,000 students and 300 teachers.
Since 2005, the library has been called upon by various graduate courses (CdLs) to develop a
course in library instruction for the students of the campus schools. Over these 15 years,
courses, including credit courses, for the three discipline areas have been regularly organised.
Initially, the objective was to givesupport to bibliographic research in the subject of user
education by introducing the services,the printed and electronic collections and the research
DLP
38,3
362
Received6 April 2021
Revised16 June 2021
23August 2021
27October 2021
8 November2021
Accepted9 November 2021
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.38 No. 3, 2022
pp. 362-377
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-04-2021-0028
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2059-5816.htm
tools. Subsequently,the programmes were enriched in their information literacy (IL) content,
evermore mindful of the aim to impart the ability and competence necessary for research
work, above all having the thesis in mind.
More recently, according to International standard Society of College, National and
University Libraries (SCONUL) and the Association of College and Research Libraries
(ACRL), additional content,relative to soft skills such as writing and presenting texts in the
academic environment,has been introduced.
Together with traditional pedagogy, active learning pedagogy has been applied in the
form of workshops for smallgroups, in particular political science students.
From 2004 to 2019, more than 5,000 studentsparticipated in courses in these disciplines.
In particular, in 2019, the participationof 755 students was recorded, being 6% of the 12,097
registered in the three schools. To this, we must add 1,455 who attended the e-learning
method, reaching thereforea participation of 18%.
In parallel, one-shot sessions have been held since 2008 by the Law teachers’specific
request. These consisted of 100 lessons held by the librarianseither outside of the academic
calendar or togetherwith the teachers, and they were joined by 2,195 students [1].
The Covid-19 emergency accelerated notablythe passage to an online method, and from
the academic year (2020-2021),all the training courses are available online.
In close synergy with the courses, the themes of IL have also been at the centre of the
service of personal consulting to past-year students. This service, started in 2004, has been
used by an average of over 300 students a year.
2. Aims and objectives
During this experience, doubts have grown about the structuring of the courses and about
their impact on the students’performance. It seemed natural to share these questions with
the faculty staff andan investigation was the appropriate way to do so.
The publication of “Linee guida per il raggiungimentodella competenza informativa dei
laureati delle università italiane”(Conferenza dei Rettori delle Università Italiane, 2018)
revealed the universities’attention to this theme, and it confirmed that it was the right
moment for this conversation.
The investigation was proposed to strengthen the relations of dialogue and exchange
with the faculty staff with the aim of starting a collaboration between librarians and
teachers and improvingIL courses.
The objectives were:
to reveal how diffused IL skills are amongst teachers of Social Sciences campus and
how important and necessary they consider them to be;
to find out how the teachers evaluate the students’level of learning IL skills;
to understand whether there was a possible integration between the principles of IL
and the university curricula;
to investigate on how the role of librarians as educators is perceived; and
to elicit suggestions for strengthening the training activities of the library.
The lack of specific studies in the nationalcontext gave additional motivation to this study.
3. Literature review
Generally, the investigations have revealed that teachers pay significant attention, at least
on paper, to the subject of IL (Gonzales, 2001;Singh,2005;Weetman, 2005;Gullikson, 2006;
DaCosta, 2010;Bury, 2011;Saunders, 2012;Dubicki, 2013;Pinto, 2016). But, as DaCosta
Information
literacy skills
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