Primary Research Group has published Information Literacy Efforts Benchmarks, 2014 Edition, ISBN 978-1-57440-282-7.

The 200-page study looks closely at the information literacy efforts of North American colleges and universities, presenting findings from a survey of more than 50 colleges and universities. The report gives highly detailed data on library use of personnel for instructional purposes, trends in the number of in-class presentations, number of instructors used, students served and classes given. It pinpoints librarian opinion on the information literacy skills of their students in catalog, e-book and database use, facility with QR codes, search engine use, and use of special collections, among other areas. It serves as a guide to how students and information literacy instructors are assessed and what is the role of information literacy in college orientation. The report also gives detailed data on information literacy training requirements for graduation and on information literacy efforts for special populations, such as distance learning students.

The report helps library planners to answer questions such as: what are norms for information literacy graduation requirements? What is the perception of the overall level of student skills in use of e-book collections? What percentage of libraries assess faculty satisfaction with the information literacy effort? How high a priority is information literacy for college management? What is the role of instructional video in information literacy?

Just a few of the report's many findings are that:

•  29.41% of participating colleges offer an online or distance learning information literacy course.
• Librarians perceive that information literacy is a "high priority" for college management for 40% of the research universities in the sample, compared to just 6.67% of the 4-year colleges.
• 42.11% of community colleges in the sample say their librarians have faculty status; 100% for research universities in the sample.
• 35.29% of survey participants say the library administers information literacy tests to incoming freshmen or transfer students. These are much more common among private colleges (52.38%) than among public colleges (23.33%).
• 50% of the colleges in the sample offer interactive information tutorials.

The study is available directly from Primary Research Group and also from major distributors of books and research reports. Print and PDF versions are available for $80.00. Site licenses are also available. For a table of contents, list of tables, free excerpt, and participants list, visit our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.