Baseline Assessment: Understanding WISE Freshman Students’ Information Literacy Skills in a One-shot Library Session

ABSTRACT

To understand Women in Science and Engineering freshman student’s information literacy skills, the authors surveyed seventy-five students with a pre- and posttest in a one-shot library session. The pretest received sixty-seven responses while the posttest received fifty-two responses. Although our survey tests did not show a significant difference in knowledge learned, they provided valuable insight into how much information students could obtain from a one-shot library session. Not surprisingly, a few students indicated that they preferred more library sessions to just one. The authors also discussed findings and identified areas in this one-shot library session that can be improved.

KEYWORDS:

• WISE freshmen
• information literacy skills
• one-shot library session
• library research skills
• assessment

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully thank the WISE students who participated in this study. Special thanks to Sally Stieglitz, Digital Learning and Instruction Librarian at Adelphi University and Richard Tran at New York University for their helpful reviews of the manuscript.