Learning information literacy skills through library instruction: an Irish higher education case study of first year students

Abstract

First year students in the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) participate in a mandatory Learning & Innovation Skills (LIS) module to ease the transition from second to third level education. To complement this module the library offers four standalone library instruction sessions which aim to provide students with the key competencies to learn information literacy (IL) skills. There is significant existing research on information literacy and evaluating library instruction internationally, however, a lesser amount is published on the Irish perspective. Using a mixed method case study, the objective of this research is to examine GMIT’s experience of learning information literacy skills through library instruction. The research is GMIT specific but is valuable to the wider audience; it proposes to expand on prior higher education information literacy studies. The research does not endeavour to analyse library instruction beyond the four sessions delivered to compliment the LIS module. Furthermore the study is not attempting a retrospective analysis of the sessions, or a generalisation of all library instruction within the institute. The research will be the first in-depth analysis of the library’s elements of GMIT’s LIS module. The research gives significant insight into learning information literacy skills through library instruction and will help with future developments of the library instruction sessions. The findings indicate that students benefit from library instruction sessions; however a more progressional approach to teaching information literacy may be more beneficial than the method currently employed.