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Lauren Taylor
LIS 560

Information Literacy in Student Theatre Artists

Target Group: Student Theatre Artists
I chose this topic because it is my ultimate goal to be a theatre librarian.
Because of my extensive history in theatre specifically, I decided to narrow my
target group down to student theatre artists. I have a BFA in Theatre with an
emphasis in Lighting Design. I also have been involved in theatre and the arts in
some way since I was two years old, so I am very well-versed in the needs of theatre
students.
Student theatre artists are, for the purposes of this study, those who are
currently in school, specifically higher education, for theatre. As theatre artists are
always learning and perfecting their craft, it is important to make this distinction.
Many seasoned professionals would still consider themselves a student and that
there will always be more to learn, and so the target group must actually be
enrolled in a theatre program at a college or university. Student theatre artists may
be studying performance, design, production, or administration to be a part of this
group. They take many of the same classes and therefore have similar information
needs.

Information Needs

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Students in a theatre program are required to study much more than their
chosen area (acting, design, production, etc.). At Millikin University, for example,
they will also have classes centered around technique, analysis, collaboration, and
professionalism1. As an alumna of MU, I can attest that these classes include Play
Analysis, Theatre History, Concepts and Collaboration, Directing, Acting, at least one
language, and some University core requirements to name a few. Many of these
classes involve history of various parts of theatre, and most, if not all classes have
written assignments that require research to be done. A study done at the
University of Wyoming in Laramie revealed that most theatre students would
consider interdisciplinary research very important to them 2. That same study also
found that theatre students have a need to find not just textual research, but also
visual, especially when it comes to the students focusing in design. The study
responses also revealed a need for more current information, as a lot of sources
include very old designers, directors, and shows, but a lot of the newer shows being
produced are not as easily located.

Information Seeking Behavior

Student Theatre Artists may go about finding information in a variety of ways.
While many students use the librarys resources, the UWL study found that the
1 Areas of Study. Millikin University, 22 Aug. 2016,
https://www.millikin.edu/theatre/areas-study.

2 Mayer, J. "Serving the Needs of Performing Arts Students: A Case Study." portal:
Libraries and the Academy, vol. 15 no. 3, 2015, pp. 409-431. Project MUSE,
doi:10.1353/pla.2015.0036.

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information-seeking process was much more varied. When asked how they seek
information, Responses varied from using Wikipedia entries and the references
listed, to databases such as JSTOR and theater databases, to using references from
books, YouTube (since Theres nothing that helps me more than actually seeing
something in practice, and video for me is the only way to do that), to watching
plays by accredited production companies such as the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC), to Google Scholarwhere one student mentioned she
sometimes only sees a preview of the article, but then can usually get a copy
through the library.2 Online resources are a crucial part of the process for many
theatre artists. It would also seem that many students feel their instructors are not
up-to-date in their training of new technologies, resulting in the professors
requesting more book sources than digital sources for their assignments.
Most of the theatre students from the UWL study identified themselves as
visual learners. In fact, many students described that they often found inspiration
by browsing the stacks in the library. To meet those needs, the students suggested
incorporating visual maps with subject icons of the stacks, including images in
tutorials and online guides, and incorporating visuals in instruction sessions. 2 This
combined with their aforementioned need for online sources suggests that student
theatre artists would benefit from training in how to use both physical and online
resources to find information.

Information Literacy Skills

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Depending on the area of study, the needs of the student theatre artist will
vary slightly. Designers, for example, need more visuals than a performer would, but
performers would benefit from more scripts and music than a designer would. Since
many theatre students also have non-theatre classes, as well as theatre relating to
many different areas of study, the need for interdisciplinary research is large. The
growing technology age requires that all students, not just theatre students, have a
firm grasp on research databases and computer skills, but as theatre artists often
are visual learners, the need to navigate the physical library is also present. Below I
have listed some examples of the information needs and corresponding skills of the
student theatre artists.
NEED: Find reference material in physical books and journals
SKILL: The ability to navigate and use physical library resources
NEED: Find information on theatre history OR information that does
not pertain to theatre, but is for theatrical purposes.
SKILL: The ability to navigate and use research databases related to
their specific need AND how to appropriately navigate search engines
such as Google Scholar2
NEED: Find reliable information on theatre technology, history, or
current works
SKILL: The ability to determine the reliability of a source 3
NEED: Find up-to-date information on theatre technology, history, or
current works
SKILL: The ability to determine the relevance of a source 3
NEED: Present information to a variety of audiences
SKILL: The ability to adapt their presentation based on the type of
audience4

3 Theatre Major Research Skills. Smith College, 30 Nov. 2009,

http://www.smith.edu/libraries/services/faculty/infolit/ilprograms/theatreskills.

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In practice, those needs and skills would look something like this: a director needs
to find psychology studies for the personality of their main character. She navigates
a psychology database and find an article she thinks will work. She determines
whether the source she has found is reliable and was written during or relates to the
time period of her show. She can then present this source to her actor to convey
why the character would behave in such a way. The director decides that because of
this personality, she wants a specific look for a lighting cue in the show. She asks
her lighting designer if he thinks its possible. The lighting designer then looks up
technology that would help achieve the look and determines if they can afford to
use that technology. If they can, he researches how to use obtain it and how to use
it. He then presents his findings to his director in a way that makes sense to a
person who doesnt know lighting lingo. These skills can apply to nearly every role
in theatre, including just writing a paper about its possibilities for a class.

Survey: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/lctaylor/316466
Question 1.
As a theatre student, what types of resources do you use to help you find
information? Check all that apply. If not listed, please describe in "Other."

Required.

Physical Library Resources (books, journals, music, etc)

Digital Library Resources (databases, online journals, ebooks, etc)
Online Search Engines (Google, Google Scholar, Bing, etc)
4 Small, Ruth V (2000) Having an IM-PACT: A Model for Improving Instructional
Presentations," Teacher Librarian 28 no1 30-5 S

Online video and music sources (YouTube, etc)

Other:
Question 2.
What type of resource do you find to be the most helpful to you as a theatre
student? (Ex: text or video or images)

Required.

Question 3.
At what level would you say your ability to use physical library resources (books,
journals, music, etc) is currently?

Required.

No experience at all
Beginner (some experience, low ability)
Intermediate (moderate experience, average ability)
Expert (extensive experience, excellent ability)
Question 4.
At what level would you say your ability to use digital library resources
(databases, online journals, ebooks ,etc) is currently?

Required.

No experience at all
Beginner (some experience, low ability)
Intermediate (moderate experience, average ability)
Expert (extensive experience, excellent ability)
Question 5.

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Do you feel you currently get enough training using your library resources? Please
explain your answer.

Required.Limit response to 500 characters.

500 characters remaining

Question 6.
At what level would you say your ability to use online search engines (Google,
Google Scholar, Bing, etc) and online video and music resources (Youtube, etc) is
currently?

Required.

No experience at all
Beginner (some experience, low ability)
Intermediate (moderate experience, average ability)
Expert (extensive experience, excellent ability)
Question 7.
Do you feel you currently get enough training using these other online resources?
Please explain your answer.

Required.Limit response to 500 characters.

500 characters remaining

Question 8.

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Do you feel your information needs as a theatre student are currently being met?
If no, please describe the area(s) you feel need improvement.

Required.

Question 9.
Please indicate the degree program you are in and how far along you are in this
program (ex: BFA Sophomore or MA Year 1)

Required.

Question 10.
Please indicate your area of study within theatre. Check all that apply.

Required.

Performance
Design
Directing
Administration
Other: