Don't they teach that in high school? Examining the high school to college information literacy gap

College librarians express concern over incoming students' information literacy skills and lack of skills preparing them for college-level research. However, it is unclear whether information literacy skills are not being taught at the high school level, whether they are not being retained or t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Library & information science research 2017-10, Vol.39 (4), p.276-283
Main Authors:	Saunders, Laura, Severyn, Jenny, Caron, Jes
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Academic libraries Academic readiness College students Information literacy Librarians
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	College librarians express concern over incoming students' information literacy skills and lack of skills preparing them for college-level research. However, it is unclear whether information literacy skills are not being taught at the high school level, whether they are not being retained or transferred as students move on to college, or whether there is a disconnect between the skills taught in high school and those expected of incoming college students. This study explores these questions through a set of parallel surveys sent to a national sample of high school and college librarians. Findings suggest that high school and college librarians agree on the importance of most skills though they vary in their emphasis on their importance, and that information literacy skills are being taught in high school but do not seem to transfer to college. The paper concludes with suggestions for increased communication and collaboration to bridge the high school to college transition. •High school and college librarians agree on the relative importance of most information literacy skills.•High school librarians find more skills important than college librarians do.•Both high school and college librarians rate student proficiency in information literacy low overall.•College librarians assume that many skills are not taught at the high school level.
ISSN:	0740-8188 1873-1848