Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Sep 2007)
Information Skills Survey: Its Application to a Medical Course
Abstract
Objective ‐ To investigate the validity and reliability of the Information Skills Survey for Assessment of Information Literacy in Higher Education (CAUL ISS) (Catts, “Administration Manual”) for identifying the information literacy skills of first and fourth‐year medical students. The CAUL ISS is a standardised, 20 item self‐report inventory of information literacy skills of higher education students. It exists in two forms, namely a generic form and a law discipline specific form. This paper is concerned with the suitability of the generic form ofthe survey for use with medical students.Methods ‐ The generic form of the CAUL ISS was administered to 86 first‐year and 120 fourth‐year medical students and the reliabilities were computed. In addition, students were asked to respond to two open‐ended questions about their information literacy. Subsequently, having noted that the fourth‐year students rated themselves significantly more severely on seven of the 20 items, four of this cohort were interviewed to identify the extent to which the CAUL ISS addressed the range of their techniques for information use and to identify any specific content validity issues in the application of the CAUL ISS scale to this population.Results ‐ The reliability of the CAUL ISS was confirmed for both years, but the evidence from an analysis of the individual items and from the open‐ended questions and the interviews indicated that the fourth‐year students adopt a wider range of information gathering techniques, appropriate to their clinical experience than measured by the survey. The CAUL ISS demonstrated content validity for first‐year students but its scope was not sufficient for content validity for fourth‐year students. Further investigations are required todetermine the full scope of competencies required for content validity with the fourth‐year cohort.Conclusion‐ The evidence suggests that the generic form of the CAUL ISS is suitable for use to estimate the information skills of first year medical students. For fourth‐year students, suggestions are made for the use of the CAUL ISS in the context of their additional situated information literacy.
