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Semistructured interviews were conducted with community college students in Florida and New York, two diverse states with robust community college systems, to explore their self-perceptions of their information literacy (IL) needs. Findings indicate that students value IL in their personal lives, their academic work, and their careers, though it means somewhat different things to them in each of those areas. They think of IL in terms of skills rather than threshold concepts, and they feel that the most important skill is finding information, followed by evaluating information.

This paper shares the results of semi-structured interviews with 30 community college librarians who have instruction duties. The interviews explored these librarians’ perceptions of students’ information literacy (IL) strengths and weaknesses as well as their views of students’ self-perceptions. Participants believe that students are confident in their ability to find information and are proficient in using technology to find information. Participants consider students’ overconfidence to be an IL weakness along with: not understanding the research process; being overwhelmed by information; and, in some cases, having poor reading comprehension skills. Views are mixed as to whether students’ IL skills vary based on their program of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an exploratory study, interviews were conducted with fifteen librarians to learn about their perceptions of and experiences with the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." Participants reported that they are implementing the "Framework" implicitly rather than explicitly, and their instruction has become more interactive and hands-on. A key strategy to success has been getting buy-in from other librarians and faculty. The participants have encountered a number of challenges in implementing the "Framework," including time constraints within the one-shot model of instruction and resistance from some librarians and faculty who feel that the "Framework" is too highly conceptual to be practical for students, many of whom lack basic information literacy skills. Finally, participants indicated it is difficult to assess learning based on the "Framework."

An online survey sent to the community of professional librarians in the United States who provide information literacy instruction in academic libraries provided insights into their practices and the challenges they face. Data include current pedagogical methods, client groups of focus, assessment and evaluation, marketing, instructional objectives, incorporating the new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into instruction, the role of technology in instruction, the importance of relationships with faculty and administrators, and a range of common challenges faced by instructional librarians. The survey results can help to identify best practices, to improve current practice, to compare practices across different contexts, and to inform preprofessional preparation of librarians who will become providers of instruction.

The Attaining Information Literacy Project has focused on identifying first-year college students with below-proficient information literacy skills, gaining an understanding of those students' self-views and perceptions of information literacy, gaining an understanding of their instructional experiences and preferences, and developing an intervention that will address their instructional needs. Focus groups were conducted with students with below-proficient skills to determine their instructional preferences. The findings from the focus groups indicate that students place a high value on personal relevance in the knowledge and skills they are learning, and they prefer a combination of demonstration and hands-on activities, interaction with the instructor and other students, and the availability of supplemental instructional materials in the form of handouts. In addition, they feel that incentives to participate in instruction are crucial and that a number of communication strategies are needed to advertise effectively the availability of instructional sessions.