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College and Research Libraries
March 2005, Vol. 66, No. 2

Book Review

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes for Information Literacy Instruction in Academic Institutions. Ed. Elizabeth Fuseler Avery. Chicago: ACRL. 2003. 299p. alk. paper, $29 (ISBN 0838982611). LC 2003-21498.

The information provided by assessment is essential for improving our information literacy programs and garnering support for these efforts. In 2000, ACRL adopted its Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. To enable implementation of these standards, ACRL was awarded a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to train librarians in assessment principles and techniques. Twenty-four academic librarians from a cross section of colleges and universities lent their expertise to this effort; this book is the result of this collaborative grant activity over a two-year period.

The authors of the introductory set of five short chapters explain the basic concepts of planning for assessment, selecting and developing tools for assessment, analyzing data, and reporting results. Authors of subsequent chapters trace the implementation of these processes in a variety of curricula and institutions. Each chapter is focused on a particular strategy, implemented in a particular course or curriculum, at a single institution. For example, one chapter is devoted to an overview of the assessment of information literacy (IL) in an introductory education class at Spokane Falls Community College, whereas another focuses on assessment of IL in a history class at California State University at Northridge. The first of these projects utilized a Web page checklist, whereas the latter used a questionnaire to obtain information from students. These examples are valuable because they demonstrate that there is a chance to do assessment in nearly every curriculum and working within almost any administrative structure.

Each chapter starts with a description of the institution, followed by a list of project participants, and provides a description of the project and its results, challenges, and conclusions. Examples of assessment tools are included at the end of each chapter. Sample assessment strategies include rubrics, questionnaires, source-rating exercises, Web evaluation forms, and analyses of research papers.

Although many of the strategies utilized to work with different academic constituencies are innovative, the research methodologies are not groundbreaking. The goal is to show that with some fundamental assessment skills and a rudimentary knowledge of statistics, even folks who do not think of themselves as experts in assessment or research design can generate meaningful information for their organization. Most academic librarians should find at least one example in this book that will cause them to say, "I could do that at my institution!" It is in this way that this book will have its greatest impact.—John P. Renaud, University of Miami.