Summary of Key Findings

Responses to Online Audit

278 responses were received in total. This figure includes instances where more than one person from an institution replied as was the case with Birmingham. These are broken down as follows:

Type of Institution

The 'No Answer' return was made by Hillcroft College, a women-only adult residential college which is funded directly though central government. The respondent didn't feel that any of the categories supplied adequately described this institution. One third of the total respondents came from those institutions describing themselves as FE. Just over a quarter of respondents described themselves as coming from HE.

Membership of the Institute of Learning and Teaching

Type of Institution* No. of staff members of ILT Crosstabulation

The '0' column in the above table includes those institutions that answered 'don't know' to this question, as well as those that registered '0'. Several institutions said they were waiting for final approval on a number of applications, and these have been treated as current members. Many HE institutions reported that staff were in the process of applying for membership.

Again, HE had the highest percentage of institutions with at least one member of staff in the ILT (37.3%), followed by FE/HE (4.9%). No other kinds of institution claimed to have any ILT staff with the exception of 1 6^th form/ FE which stated that 4 staff are members of the ILT.

Institutional learning and teaching strategies.

Type of Institution* Is IS training in strategy? Crosstabulation

 

56.8% of respondents stated that Information Skills featured in the Library/ Information Service development/ strategic plan. 32.4% stated that it did not. Again HE featured most highly with 61.3% of respondents in this category answering 'yes'.

Provision of Information Skills training in Library plans

Type of Institution* Is IS training in library plans? Crosstabulation

87.8% of respondents stated that Information Skills featured in the Library/ Information Service development/ strategic plan. 10% stated that it did not and the remaining 2.2% did not answer the question or stated that it was not applicable. Nearly all those describing themselves as HE or PG only answered 'yes' to this question.

Session evaluation

Type of Institution* Are sessions evaluated? Crosstabulation

In response to the question "Are sessions evaluated?" 55.4% of respondents stated that they were. Again on an institutional basis HE institutions gave a very high 'yes' response rate with 77.3% (58) stating that sessions are evaluated. 100% (3) of Postgraduate institutions undertake evaluation.

How are IS sessions evaluated?

Type of Institution* How are sessions evaluated? Crosstabulation

Printed feedback forms were the most popular method for obtaining feedback with 45.7% of respondents using this method.

Comments made in relation to the evaluation methods present a more mixed picture than the statistics suggest. Feedback is received in a variety of different formats such as verbally through departmental library committees or direct from staff and students, through general course feedback forms and from more general library questionnaires, which often include a question about IS sessions. Some institutions use a variety of methods of evaluation, offering students a choice of ways to provide feedback.

Assessment of Prior Learning

Type of Institution* Any prior skills assessment? Crosstabulation

Overall there appears to be very little assessment of students' prior skills training, with only 5% of respondents stating that assessment is always carried out as opposed to 69.1% who state that no assessment takes place. Again, HE has the highest level of prior skills assessment with 36% of institutions assessing students either always or for some courses.

Information Skills and Assessed Modules

Type of Institution* IS training part of assessed modules? Crosstabulation

Very little information skills training takes place as part of assessed modules with only 3.2% of the total responses stating that it is always part. However 54.7% stated that it is part of some assessed modules; and 36.3% replied that it is not assessed.

Information skills training and delivery

In response to the question who delivers what training and to whom, respondents were asked to indicate whether work was carried out by academic staff, library and information service staff or by both. Some expected trends occurred, for example library and information service staff were responsible for induction sessions, whereas academic staff were more involved in key skills teaching than LIS staff for most categories of institution.

6^th form/FE

Inductions: For the 6^th form/FE group inductions were largely carried out by library staff although for distance learners and undergraduates there was a notable degree of involvement in inductions by academic staff.

Key skills: training for all groups of students was mainly carried out by academic staff although some joint work was recorded for most student groups.

Basic information searching skills: the highest responses were recorded for library staff however there are significant levels of activity for both. Academic staff do very little in this area on their own.

Research skills: highest level of activity is by both groups although significant levels of activity are also undertaken for FE students by library staff and academic staff as separate entities.

FE/HE

A similar pattern as before emerges for this group.

Inductions: for all groups of students these sessions are mainly carried out by library staff.

Key skills:instruction is the preserve of academic staff especially for FE and undergraduate students. A slightly more mixed picture emerges for other student groups.

Basic information searching skills: training here is carried out by library staff, although a significant number of responses have been made in the ‘both’ category.

Research skills: for all categories of students research skills training is carried out by both library and academic staff.

HE

In this category academics seem to feature less distinctively than in the others. This could be due to library staff in HE being less aware of what academic staff cover in their teaching rather than there being no academic activity at all.

Inductions: again are carried out mainly by library staff.

Key skills: training here is recorded as being undertaken by library staff but there is still a significant level of activity recorded for ‘both’ which almost equals the activity noted for library staff. For example for undergraduates there were 22 responses for library staff and 20 for both.

Basic information skills: again responses for library staff were significant, but with only about half the amount recorded for ‘both’.

Research skills: work in this area was split almost equally between ‘both’ and library staff. For example for undergraduates responses were 30 for ‘both’ and 30 for library staff. This could be due to the common inclusion of a ‘research skills’ module on taught postgraduate courses.

PG

Library staff carried out most work other than in the research skills category where ‘both’ was also recorded.

Types of training included in the ‘other’ category include specific IT skills such as e-mail and using the internet as well as citation and bibliographic skills.

‘Other’ groups of users were mainly staff. This is interesting in so far as there are some examples in the literature which state that academic staff do not themselves possess information skills and are therefore not in a position to pass such skills on to students. It would appear from the answers supplied that some work is going on in this area. However it should be remembered that the audit was designed specifically to assess information skills training opportunities for students.

Modes of delivery

Tours still seem to be the most used method for carrying out induction sessions although in HE and FE a variety of other methods are also widely used, including small group demonstrations and hands-on sessions. Responses to the ‘ad hoc’ option are also high. Lectures and hand-on opportunities along with small group work are widely used for the delivery of key skills and basic information skills searching sessions. The use of drop in sessions is also widely reported in both the HE and FE sectors.

Summary

The audit yielded no surprises. Given the very general nature of the questions asked, the results can only act as indicators of activity. The next task will be to identify those areas of activity and individual institutions which merit further investigation.