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A search strategy oriented five hour course-related Bibliographic Instruction program taught in conjunction with Education 180, a course on the Social Psychology of Higher Education at UCLA was evaluated. Three sets of hypotheses were tested: (1) The impact of the B.I. program as measured by four different instruments; (a fifth measure, student products had to be abandoned); (2) The correlation among the four measures of outcome; (3) The effect on Posttest of Pretests and Performance Tests.
Three hundred and one freshmen enrolled in Education 180 were divided into Control and Treatment, Pretest no Pretest Groups. Background variables controlled for included ability, past and simultaneous experiences with libraries and BI programs and attitude toward library.
The four measures were (1) an eighteen item written test of Content Knowledge; (2) a Performance Test consisting of four search problems to be completed in UCLA's College Library; (3) a ten item Attitude Questionnaire probing students' perceptions of the ease of using the libraries at UCLA; (4) a ten item library Utilization Questionnaire based on Pace's College Student Experiences Questionnaire, which explores patterns of library utilization.
The treatment group (BI) received a thirty-five page booklet, Fast Library Research by Bates, which focused on search strategies; two lecture discussion sessions reinforcing the concepts in FLR; a set of closely guided six-item library exercises.
Analyses of variance showed no significant effects for being in the BI program on any of the measures, but individual items on each of the measures did indicate some effects for BI.
Suggestions for the lack of observed effect for BI included a mismatch between the level of the test and the actual learning that may have taken place, as well as the conditions under which the program was delivered.