Promoting and teaching information literacy on the Internet: Surveying the web site of 264 academic libraries in North America.

Promoting and teaching information literacy on the Internet: Surveying the web site of 264 academic libraries in North America.

A survey of various academic libraries in North America to determine how information literacy sessions are promoted and taught.

Sharon Q. Yang

Journal of Web Librarianship

2014

Sharon Q. Yang & Min Chou

English

Peer-reviewed Article

A survey was conducted between July and November 2012 to determine how academic libraries in the United States and Canada marketed and delivered information literacy on the Web. A random sample of 264 institutions was taken from Peterson's Four-Year Colleges 2012, and the authors checked each Web site of the academic libraries of the institutions in the sample for instruction-related activities. Only 65 percent of the libraries in the sample advertised library instruction as a service on the Web, while 64 percent of the libraries boasted research guides and tutorials. Sixteen percent of the libraries provided direct links to ACRL's Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, and 24 percent made an effort to explain and define the term “information literacy” to their users. The authors hope the findings can help determine how academic libraries are currently using the Internet to increase information literacy on the Web and set a new platform for better strategies for advocating information literacy.