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Investigating the efcacy of embedment: experiments in information literacy integration

Meagan Bowler and Kori Street

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Received 11 June 2008 Revised 31 July 2008 Accepted 9 August 2008

Abstract

Reference Services Review Vol. 36 No. 4, 2008 pp. 438-449 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0090-7324 DOI 10.1108/00907320810920397

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Keywords Information literacy, Problem based learning, Librarians, Students Paper type Case study

Introduction In 2006, Gilman (2006), an academic librarian from Yale, asked Chronicle readers to show their librarians some love. The article went on to present several compelling arguments about why academic librarians together with information literacy (IL) curriculum should be integrated into discipline specic academic curriculum. Nonetheless, a gulf remains. Despite a growing body of research suggesting that one-off sessions are not the most effective way to integrate IL into the classroom, many faculty members are reluctant to give up time to anything more than a general introductory session because they are often unwilling to lose discipline content or give up control in the classroom (Julien and Given, 2002/2003; Julien and Boon, 2002)[1].

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Purpose This paper seeks to present the ndings of a series of experiments in embedding a librarian at a variety of levels into the undergraduate classroom. This study aimed to determine whether different levels of librarian embedment correlated with improvement in undergraduate students information literacy (IL) skills. Design/methodology/approach Students from ve undergraduate History courses and two undergraduate Womens Studies courses participated in the study. A librarian was embedded in each of the courses, at a variety of levels across courses. All student assignments were graded using a standardized rubric. Students IL skills were assessed using the research component of the rubric, which measured their ability to locate, retrieve, evaluate, and incorporate sources into their assignments. Students research and overall scores on their initial problem-based learning (PBL) assignments and written assignments were compared to their nal assignment scores in order to assess improvement over the course of the term. Findings There was signicant improvement in students scores when a librarian was conspicuously and obviously embedded in the academic classroom. Students scores showed little improvement when the librarian was embedded but not explicitly identied as a specialist in information literacy, and when the researchers attempted to embed information literacy seamlessly in the classroom. Research limitations/implications The research was conducted only in courses in the Humanities. Practical implications This study suggests that students IL skills improve most when IL is identied in the classroom as a specialized subject taught by a highly trained specialist. The methodology used may be useful for others studying the impact of IL instruction. Originality/value Although embedding has been studied and reported on in the literature in a variety of contexts, the study of different levels of embedding, quantied using the same rubric is unique.

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Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada

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The nature of embedment Dewey (2004) suggests that the process of embedding journalists into military units during the Iraq war was the inspiration for the term as applied to the increased collaborations between librarians and faculty. While some may quibble with the genesis of the word, there is general agreement that when used in the IL context, the term is referring to purposeful collaborations between librarians and teaching faculty where the librarian is more fully integrated into a course, virtual or real, than is customarily the case with one-off IL integration (Shumaker and Tyler, 2007). A wide range of embedment activities are currently being discussed in the literature. At the most general level, embedment might refer to IL outcomes being specically designed by the librarian and linked to an assignment and targeted at

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Obstacles to embedment In his article, Show your librarian some love, Gilman (2006) suggests that faculty colleagues might just be pleasantly surprised by the experience of a librarian in their classroom. After citing the obstinance and irrationality of teaching faculty, Gilman suggests, with respect, that faculty get over it. While Gilman makes some fair suggestions regarding advocating for what he terms research instruction, he misses a salient point, and the biggest obstacle to effective integration faculty do not have to get over it. If we are to integrate IL effectively into the discipline-specic classroom we must nd ways to create a lasting bridge between what Badke (2005) described as the two solitudes of the academic library and the academic classroom. There is already a good deal of literature on the nature of the two solitudes and strategies for bridging the gap that exists between them (Kotter, 1999; McGuinness, 2006; Julien and Boon, 2002)[2]. It is not the focus of this paper to address those issues; however, we acknowledge that there are real cultural differences that make collaborating difcult. At the same time, faculty members across North America are concerned about the apparent rise of information illiteracy, as evidenced by the increasing incidence of plagiarism (Manuel et al., 2005). We concur with Owusu-Ansah (2004) that discipline-specic faculty and faculty librarians have converging interests, if different duties, and that librarians occupy a unique position and are well placed to contribute to solving the IL dilemmas plaguing academe today. Given and Julien (2005) argue that the way forward is to recognize that faculty members and librarians are masters of their own (separate, but related) spheres. The results of our experiments conrm these ndings: when information literacy is embedded consciously and conspicuously, and emphasized as a specialized and specic component of the course, students performance improves in real terms.

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In such an environment, it can be difcult to effectively integrate IL into discipline-specic curriculum, particularly in a way that will address the concerns of both the faculty member and the academic librarian, as well as ensure student success. The search to nd a practicable integrative strategy resulted in over two years of experimentation in embedment in the classroom by a historian and a librarian. This paper presents those experiments and offers some initial analysis of the results and what they suggest about the nature of embedment as a strategy. It also provides compelling evidence that embedment can be a highly successful strategy for IL education.

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Initial experience in embedment? Our rst experiment in embedment, although we did not identify it as such, was conducted in the winter term of 2006, and laid the groundwork for the experiments that are the focus of this paper. The collaboration emerged out of recognition that both researchers wanted to test the assumptions we were making about the efcacy of IL in the classroom setting. In HIST 3391 Film and history, we consciously and conspicuously embedded information literacy and an academic librarian into a history course. The librarian was involved in setting the assignments and the assessment rubric in consultation with the faculty member. The librarian met with the class for three IL sessions linked to course assignments, and conducted pre and post course sume s (MacMillan, 2005). In this experiment, we were also utilizing a I-SKILLS Re classroom response system (clickers), problem-based learning (PBL)[3], and just-in-time learning, in addition to the experiment in integration. The results, which were presented at LOEX-of-the-West in June 2006, demonstrated that students had achieved considerable success in achieving IL outcomes. As is evidenced in Figure 1, students research scores increased dramatically over the course of the term, showing a 17.2 percent improvement on average from the initial written assignment to the nal written assignment. The I-SKILLS Resumes also showed considerable improvement in students own self-assessment of their IL skills. We did not, however, know why. The design of the experiment clearly raised some questions; most specically that it was unclear which of the elements was responsible for the students success. Was it PBL? Was it the classroom response system? Was it the combination? Was it the embedding of the librarian? In order to try to ascertain what was working, we embarked on a new series of experiments. We decided to maintain the general course design, the assessment rubric, delivery methods, and assignments, but we would experiment with the level of embedment of the librarian. Experiment design[4] In addition to the growing literature on embedment, our study was informed by the developing practices of colleagues in Mount Royals Library Instruction Program.

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students need in that particular course (Owens, 2008). A further stage on the spectrum of embedment might include consulting on the development of an IL assignment that comprises part of the students nal grade. The librarian may or may not be responsible for grading that assignment. Auer and Krupar (2005) and Callison et al. (2005) provide a useful discussion a number of strategies for collaboration in this respect. Other examples of embedment include the creation of proscribed modules aimed at developing IL competencies and comprehension, which are incorporated into an online or face-to-face environment. Examples of this type are described by Smith and Presser (2005); Matthew and Schroeder (2006); Lampert (2005); and Cochrane (2006). At the very deepest level of embedment, the librarian is present in the classroom as a co-instructor. In this case, the librarian may teach IL, as was the case at Daniel Webster College (Hearn, 2005) and Wake Forest University (Sharpless Smith and Sutton, 2008), or they may be team-teaching the discipline specic information as well as IL, as described by Hearn (2005). Drawing on the rich research about embedment and the experiences at our own institution we undertook a series of experiments in embedment.

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Mount Royal instructional librarians are embedded to varying degrees in a great many courses and programs across campus. From this foundation we developed a continuum of embedment that we applied to a series of courses offered through the Department of Humanities between 2007 and 2008 (Table I). In the rst of the subsequent experiments, WMST 3341 Women in Canada, the level of embedment was fairly low. The IL instruction in this course was comprised of a single session (90 minutes) with a librarian in a computer lab. The session was focused on developing students IL competencies for a particular assignment. The research requirements for this particular assignment were signicant. Students had to nd both primary and secondary sources, evaluate them for scholarly merit, engage in a group assessment of the sources and use them to develop a subject history of a particular woman. The librarian was consulted in the development of the assignment and provided input. Although we did not discuss other assignments that would follow, we hoped that students would apply the skills they learned in the session to their later assignments. In our second experiment we raised the level of embedment slightly. In both HIST 3363 Conict and society in the twentieth century and HIST 3373 The First World War, two 90-minute classes were given over to IL instruction that was primarily focused on the research necessary to solve a PBL problem. In both these courses students had two PBL problems to solve. In addition, students had essays that were linked to those PBL solutions. The librarian and the instructor collaborated on the design of the problem as well as the IL session. In both classes there was also a small assignment, the results of which helped to frame the IL sessions. The IL instruction was integrated with the students assignments in terms of timing and task. In our third experiment we embedded one librarian into each of ve PBL teams. Each team was made up of ve to seven students and had six PBL problems to solve over the course of the term. Librarians joined the team for at least one 60-minute work session during each of problems numbered three through six.

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Figure 1. Students average improvement in research scores and overall scores in HIST 3391 (2006)

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Level of embedment 1

Descriptor Entry level

Course experiment conducted in WMST 3341 07

IL learning outcomes and librarian responsibilities Librarian collaborates on assignment development Librarian not responsible for grading Single IL session linked to specic assignment Focus on IL skill development and meeting course IL outcome Librarian collaborates on assignment development for course Librarian not responsible for grading Two IL sessions directly linked to assignments in course Course has an IL assignment (faculty member grades) that informs IL session development Focus is on progressively developing skills and understanding of information Focus on IL skill development and meeting course IL outcome

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Twin pack

HIST 3363 07 and 3373 07

Immersion

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WMST 3305 07

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4 Table I. Spectrum of embedment

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Co-teaching (librarian identied as IL specialist)

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Five librarians attached to student problem solving teams Lead librarian collaborates on developing course problems/modules Research expectations progressively more advanced Individual librarians meet with teams to consult, focus on assisting develop research strategies, problem denition, assessment of sources and critical analysis Focus on IL skill development and meeting course IL outcome Librarian fully co-teaching course Librarian and faculty member responsible for discipline-specic course design, lecture preparation, assessment design, grading, as well as delivery, etc. Librarian responsible, in collaboration with the instructor, for integrating and teaching IL through modeling in lectures, specic tutorials dedicated to IL, search strategy assignment, and other weekly activities Focus on IL skill development and meeting course IL outcome (continued )

Level of embedment 5

Descriptor Co-teaching (librarian not necessarily identied as IL specialist)

Course experiment conducted in HIST 3391 08

IL learning outcomes and librarian responsibilities Librarian fully co-teaching course Librarian not necessarily identied as a librarian Librarian and faculty member responsible for discipline-specic course design, lecture preparation, assessment design, grading, etc. Faculty member and librarian equally responsible for integrating and teaching IL activities Focus on IL skill development and meeting course IL outcome

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Table I.

Results All student assignments were graded using a rubric that assigned marks for thesis, analysis, research, style, and citation. Students IL skills were assessed using the research component of the rubric, which measured their ability to locate, retrieve, evaluate, and incorporate sources into their assignments. Grading rubrics and assignment requirements were given to, and reviewed with, students well before the due date. For each of the experiments, we measured students improvement on written assignments and on PBL assignments over the course of the term. We looked at both overall assignment grades and scores on the research component of the rubric. Our ndings, summarized in Figure 2, suggest that generally as the level of librarian embedment increased students performance on the research component of the rubric increased as well. We also found a correlation between the level of improvement in students research scores, and the extent to which IL was identied as specialized knowledge. In the course where we attempted to seamlessly embed IL and did not explicitly identify it as specialized knowledge (HIST 3391 (2008)), there was very little improvement in students research scores.

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Our nal two experiments, conducted in two sections of HIST 3391 Film and history over two years, were full co-teaching. For these courses, the Department of Humanities hired a librarian to team teach a discipline-specic course with a historian. The librarian was responsible for half of the course. In addition to subject material, IL material was also integrated into almost every class. Both instructors shared the responsibility for IL education as well as the lm history education. There was one difference between the two classes: in the section offered in 2007, the librarian was identied as such and information literacy was embedded obviously and conspicuously throughout the term, in specialized sessions, lectures, and tutorials devoted specically to IL skills and learning. In 2008, the librarian was not explicitly identied as a librarian, and information literacy skills and learning were not explicitly identied but were embedded throughout the subject-specic lectures, in an effort to integrate IL seamlessly with the course work.

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HIST 3363/HIST3373 The second of our experiments also yielded positive results. Students demonstrated improvement on both their overall scores and research scores in both types of assignments being measured. Research scores on written assignments increased, on average, 8.4 percent over the course of the term. Overall scores on written assignments increased less signicantly (3.7 percent). Research scores increased similarly in the PBL component of the course: on average, students research scores improved 10.6 percent from the rst to the nal PBL. While students research scores did not improve as dramatically as they did in WMST 3341, it is important to note that the students research skills in the HIST classes were much stronger than the WMST students initially. The average starting score of the WMST students on the research component of the rubric for the rst written assignment was only 58.3 percent while the HIST students averaged 66.2 percent, a difference of 7.9 percent. The difference in their base level scores most likely accounts for the smaller degree of improvement in scores.

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WMST 3341 Given the fairly modest level of embedment in this course, we did not have high expectations for improvement. The results, however, exceeded our expectations. Students research scores and their overall scores improved in the written assignments over the course of the year. While overall scores increased by 5.6 percent, the improvement in research increased more dramatically, improving on average 12.9 percent. Scores on the research component of the PBL assignments also improved by an average of 9 percent from the initial PBL, which students completed before the IL session, to the nal PBL at the end of term. In this experiment, the IL session was tailored to meet the requirements for an assignment for which we have not measured students grades. These results demonstrated that students were able to transfer IL competencies they learned for one assignment to other different assignments. These results are encouraging in that they suggest that a properly targeted IL session related to a specic assignment can benet students in other course work.

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Figure 2. Students average improvement in research scores over the course of the term on written assignments and on PBL assignments

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WMST 3305 Students in this class showed the most dramatic improvement in research scores of all the experiments in embedment discussed in this paper. Research scores on PBL assignments averaged 63 percent in the initial assignment; by the nal assignment the average had risen to 84 percent, an increase of 21 percent over the course of the term. Overall scores increased by 11.4 percent. Students showed less improvement in their written assignments (4.9 percent) than they had shown in their PBL assignments, although it must be noted that the rst written assignment was not due until quite late in the term when students had already begun working with librarians in their PBL groups. Indeed, the average score for the rst written assignment is signicantly higher than those in other courses under discussion, suggesting that students were already beneting from subject-specic and IL course instruction in their initial written assignment. What is puzzling about this experiment is that the majority of students were neutral at best when asked whether having a librarian embedded in their PBL groups was helpful. When asked, in their exit survey, to indicate on a scale of one to ve, one being not helpful and ve being very helpful, how helpful they found having a librarian embedded in their team 14 of the 25 students (56 percent) indicated a score of three or below (see Figure 3). Interestingly, despite the rather low scores for helpfulness, students felt their IL skills improved. When asked on the exit survey to self-assess their IL skills before and after working with the librarian in the PBL teams students indicated they felt they had improved. Only 44 percent of the class rated their skills as good or excellent before librarian embedment, but after embedment that number increased to 79 percent. There was signicant improvement in IL as evidenced in the students assignment scores and in their own self-assessment of their information literacy skills (see Figure 4). We are not sure what explains the seeming disconnect between students evaluation of the helpfulness of the librarian embedment (low), their self assessment of their information literacy skills (fairly high) and the improvement in research scores (also quite high). It may be that students self-assessment was affected by their grades if

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Figure 3. Students perceptions of the helpfulness of librarian embedment in PBL groups

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Figure 4. Students self-assessment of their information literacy skills, before and after working with a librarian in PBL groups

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HIST 3391 (2007) In the section of HIST 3391 offered in 2007, students showed dramatic improvement with respect to IL. While the improvement in overall grades was fairly small (4 percent), improvement in research skills was quite high (18 percent). There was also signicant improvement in PBL grades, particularly with respect to research. Students research grades increased on average 12.5 percent from the rst to the nal PBL assignment. Encouraged by these results, we decided to conduct the same experiment the following year, but attempt to integrate IL more seamlessly into the classroom; that is, incorporate it in a less conspicuous or obvious way. HIST 3391 (2008) Our nal experiment yielded some surprises. Students showed little improvement in IL in their written assignments with the average score increasing only 0.5 percent from the initial written assignment to the nal written assignment. The lack of improvement in IL was also reected students performance in PBL groups (1 percent improvement). Why were we not seeing the improvement in research scores we had seen in previous classes? We wondered if perhaps we had had an exceptionally strong cohort to start with, and therefore there would be a smaller window of potential improvement. However, average initial and nal assignment scores, both overall and in research, did not differ signicantly from those of the other cohorts.

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they did well they may have been likely to comment positively. However, the exit survey was given after the nal PBL but before students had received their grades. This will require further study. The difculty with this approach to embedment is the high resource cost. First of all the time commitment for each librarian was very high. As well, the lead librarian was responsible for collaborating with the course instructor to design the assignments and coordinate schedules. Although the results are dramatic in terms of students achieving the IL outcome, it is not sustainable. It does, however, speak powerfully in support of embedment strategies, and certainly supports our contention that students research improves when IL is identied as a specialized component of a course.

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Overall assessment and conclusion In reecting on the results of our experiments we are convinced of the efcacy and value of pursuing embedment, although clearly all embedment is not equal. We would suggest that all of the experiments, perhaps save for the nal one, yielded sufciently signicant improvement that we would recommend using these strategies in more classes. Although the improvement in IL among students in WMST 3305 was astounding in some ways, the resource cost is not sustainable. Unless resourcing approaches are found to permit that kind of sustained, immersed embedment, we would recommend that type with caution. For some, there are questions about the efcacy or value of having librarians teach in academic classrooms (Kemp, 2006; Partello, 2005). Although the students in HIST 3391 (2008) might not have gained as much as their colleagues in other sections with respect to IL competencies, there were other benets. Student evaluation of instruction surveys in both 2007 and 2008 indicated that students felt that the collaboration was a positive addition to the classroom. In addition, having a librarian team teach has the effect of reafrming the status of the librarian as faculty. The importance of this kind of recognition should not be underestimated given the current cultural issues separating our two solitudes. Embedment can work; it can yield positive developments in IL among undergraduate students. But it is not without its difculties. Among the obstacles in all these experiment is the issue of resourcing. We have been fortunate that the academic discipline has been willing to buy the time of the librarian. Too often, however, this is not the case. Embedment without adequate resourcing will not be sustainable and it can conrm what professors already think that librarians are at the institution to provide a service, particularly in terms of research, and do not appropriately belong in their classrooms. IL education absolutely belongs in the academic classroom of the undergraduate institutions and specialists, librarians, belong in the classroom teaching it. Finally, our results in the last experiment, HIST 3391 (2008), were surprising and will require further study. Our efforts to seamlessly integrate IL and devolve some of the responsibility for teaching IL to the historian in the classroom seem to have had the opposite effect that we intended. The results suggest that IL needs to be integrated as

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There may be a number of reasons for the lack of improvement. Our initial hypothesis is that the difference is caused by the way we embedded the librarian. What distinguished this course from the other sections offered in 2006 and 2007 is that we made IL and the librarian inconspicuous. Our efforts at seamless integration may have effectively buried IL in the classroom. In addition, having the faculty member participate in teaching IL, rather than having only a designated specialist teach it, may have had the inadvertent effect of conrming what students are already reported to think about IL that they know it all and do not require special training or skills to do good research. As Manuel (2002) and others have posited, students tend to over-estimate their abilities in regard to navigating the information world. Our ndings certainly seem to conrm that IL cannot be, as some instructors would argue, developed intuitively by students or that it just happens in class (McGuinness, 2006). We assiduously modeled good IL, but we did not articulate it as specialized knowledge. These initial results suggest that it is important to identify IL as specialized and complicated knowledge and that an expert is required to teach it.

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conspicuously as possible into the academic classroom. Information literacy should be identied in the academic classroom on an equal footing to the discipline-specic knowledge presented in the classroom: each needs to be identied as specialized knowledge taught by specialized instructors.
Notes 1. In this paper the term faculty is used to denote faculty members teaching or working in an academic or discipline-specic department, and librarian to denote faculty members or professionals working in an academic library department. 2. The authors acknowledge that they are fortunate with the environment that exists at Mount Royal. We were able to start our collaboration on a solid foundation; however, we recognize that that is not the case at many institutions, particularly large research focused universities. Librarians are identied at Mount Royal as full faculty members. IL is concretely embedded in all our programs as one of six college wide learning outcomes. As Dewey (2004) and others suggest, having IL as course, program and institutional outcomes creates a different environment and one that makes collaborations more likely. Cultural differences and obstacles aside, the results of this study clearly indicate that embedment works. 3. There are those who argue that PBL has become a catch basin of many different methods, including inquiry based learning and case studies. In its original form, as it was developed at McMaster University Medical School some 30 years ago, PBL, is a way of constructing and teaching courses using problems as the stimulus and focus for student activity. It is not simply the addition of PBL activities to otherwise discipline centered curricula, but a way of conceiving of the curriculum, which is centered on key problems in professional practice. Problem-based courses start with problems rather than exposition of disciplinary knowledge. 4. All of the courses that we experimented in (or on) were intermediate level courses (second or third year) offered through the department of Humanities.

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Julien, H. and Boon, S. (2002), From the front line: information literacy instruction in Canadian academic libraries, Reference Services Review, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 143-9. Julien, H. and Given, L. (2002), Faculty-librarian relationships in the information literacy context: a content analysis of librarians expressed attitudes and experiences, The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 65-87. Kemp, J. (2006), Isnt being a librarian enough? Librarians as classroom teachers, College & Undergraduate Libraries, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 3-23. Kotter, W.R. (1999), Bridging the great divide: improving relations between librarians and classroom faculty, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 294-303. Lampert, L. (2005), Getting psyched about information literacy: a successful faculty-librarian collaboration for educational psychology and counseling, The Reference Librarian, Vol. 43 Nos 89/90, pp. 5-23. MacMillan, M. (2005), Open resume: magic words for assessment, College & Research Libraries News, Vol. 66 No. 7, pp. 516-20. McGuinness, C. (2006), What faculty think exploring the barriers to information literacy development in undergraduate education, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 573-82. Manuel, K. (2002), Teaching information literacy to Generation Y, The Journal of Library Administration, Vol. 36, pp. 195-217. Manuel, K., Beck, S. and Molloy, M. (2005), An ethnographic study in attitudes inuencing faculty collaboration in library instruction, The Reference Librarian, Vol. 42 Nos 89/90, pp. 145-6. Matthew, V. and Schroeder, A. (2006), The embedded librarian program: faculty and librarians partner to embed personalized library assistance into online courses, Educause Quarterly, Vol. 4, pp. 61-5. Owens, R. (2008), Where the students are: the embedded librarian project at Daytona Beach, Florida Libraries, pp. 8-10. Owusu-Ansah, E.K. (2004), Information literacy and higher education: placing the academic library in the center of a comprehensive solution, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 3-16. Partello, P. (2005), Librarians in the classroom, The Reference Librarian, Vol. 43 Nos 89/90, pp. 107-20. Sharpless Smith, S. and Sutton, L. (2008), Embedded librarians: on the road in the Deep South, College & Research Library News, Vol. 69 No. 2, pp. 71-85. Shumaker, D. and Tyler, L.A. (2007), Embedded Library Services: an Initial Inquiry into Practices for their Development, Management, and Delivery, pp. 1-45, The Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, 6 June 2007, Denver, CO, available at: www.sla.org/pdfs/ sla2007/ShumakerEmbeddedLibSvcs.pdf (accessed 3 May 2008). Smith, N.M. and Presser, P. (2005), Embed with the faculty: legal information skills online, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 247-62. Corresponding author Meagan Bowler can be contacted at: mbowler@mtroyal.ca

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