Bloomberg Business surveyed recruiters at hundreds of companies to ask them what skills they sought in candidates, and whether they saw those skills in the people applying for jobs. Bloomberg is using the responses to rank business schools, but I think there is a point worth looking at on a much broader scale: higher education has been slow to adapt to the new demands of work in the twenty-first century.

We recently surveyed thousands of college students and hundreds of faculty to see what they thought about the state of information literacy skills in higher ed. Following the release of our extensive survey findings, we had the pleasure of hosting a lively and well-attended breakfast discussion. It was too good to keep to ourselves, so we’ve put together this series of blog posts to include you in the conversation!

What a time to be in San Francisco! The weekend of ALA Annual coincided with the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage and the annual San Francisco Pride Parade. The weekend didn’t fail to deliver both in festiveness and ALA Conference fun!

Credo’s grant gave me resources and opportunity, allowing me to attend the American Library Association (ALA) meeting in San Francisco. I first encountered Credo Online Reference Service and Literati at ALA Chicago. Attending ALA in San Francisco (ALA/SF) this year, basically made Credo & Literati my “reference tools.” It did for me what I use Credo and Literati to do for my patrons: it gave me the resources and the opportunity to connect with professionals.

We recently surveyed hundreds of faculty members across the country to gain a better understanding of how they perceive students’ information literacy skills. More than 200  faculty responded to an open-ended question about what impact poor student information literacy skills had on their work. Almost two-thirds reported time lost addressing this gap and preparing information literacy materials, and five percent stated that it affected their decision on whether or not to assign research projects.

I recently authored a piece in eCampus News about the skills gap employers like myself have noticed in recent graduates, how this is stunting their career prospects and undermining the value of a college education.

We understand your library wants to post fun content to social media but that you might not have the time to dedicate to writing it, so we’d like to help!

Barry Schwartz’s recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, “What ‘Learning How to Think’ Really Means,” should be required reading for anyone wading into the debate about the state of higher education in the US. With articulate prose, he argues in favor of a system that simultaneously teaches students the skills that will be of greatest benefit to their professional lives, but also develops the virtues that will make them decent human beings and citizens with whom we can be proud to work and live. He draws clear connections between these virtues and long-term career success, arguing that it is actually these virtues that often truly differentiate people in the world of work.

We recently surveyed thousands of college students and hundreds of faculty to see what they thought about the state of information literacy skills in higher ed. Following the release of our extensive survey findings, we had the pleasure of hosting a lively and well-attended breakfast discussion. It was too good to keep to ourselves, so we’ve put together this series of blog posts to include you in the conversation!