Faculty Survey of Library Reference & Informtion Literacy Services

In spring 2013, the D’Alzon Library’s Reference & Information Literacy Services Department conducted a survey of faculty to gauge their awareness, use, and preference for the research and information literacy services that our department offers. These include in-library research sessions, in-class research sessions, online research guides customized for each discipline or for individual courses, individual research appointments, and collaboration with faculty on creating research assignments.

Over 40 faculty members responded to the survey.  We have analyzed the survey responses.  The attached report includes:

• An overview of the survey results
• A summation of the strengths of our services and the opportunities for improvement
• The complete survey and responses

We found the survey responses to be very helpful in gauging faculty awareness and use of our services.  The very evident conclusion from our analysis is that faculty knowledge and use of the Library’s research and instructional services remains low.  This tells us that we need to do a better job of communicating the ways that we can collaborate with faculty to advance the critical thinking and information literacy capabilities of Assumption College students. We believe that increased faculty use of a range of information literacy services, including those that do not require classroom time, will strengthen students’ basic critical thinking and research capabilities.

We are already in the process of following through on opportunities for improvement:

• Library staff met with two academic departments this semester to update them on our services and to hear firsthand how the library can assist their departments.  Meetings with additional academic departments are planned for the spring semester.
• The Library re-instituted a faculty blog as a means of communicating timely information about changes in library services and resources, as well as current trends in the library or higher education fields that would be relevant to faculty teaching or research.
• We restored the link to the Oxford English Dictionary Online to a more visible location on the Library’s website.

We thank all of you who participated in the survey, and if anyone has any questions about this report or the survey findings, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Kate Bejune

Libby Lipin

Barrie Mooney

Nancy O’Sullivan

Phil Waterman, Department Head

pwaterman@assumption.edu

508-767-7375