Using Electronic Resource Guides to Enhance Information Literacy Skills

Abstract

The importance of teaching information literacy skills toàcollege students cannot be overstressed. Due to the explosion of electronic information resources, it is critical that engineering and science students learn key research skills that help them locate, evaluate, and utilize informationàeffectively, efficiently and ethically. Such skills will help them become informed students, and instill a desire for lifelong learning ensuring they will be valued employees and citizens in the future. Incorporating information literacy skills into a curriculum or specific courses in an organized manner is difficult. The ABET standards for information literacy highlight the importance of including this instruction in the engineering curriculum. At numerous institutions, the individual instructor determines how and when this is accomplished. For many instructors, there is not enough time in the academic calendar to do all that is required. Consequently, information literacy skills may be mentioned in passing or completely eliminated to make room for other topics in the syllabus. Academic libraries have developed tools to help students learn basic skills online and to enhance these skills as their research becomes more varied and complex. At George Mason University, librarians have developed two different tools to assist both students and faculty researchers: InfoGuides (sometimes called LibGuides) target undergraduates, while Research Portals assist faculty researchers and graduate students. Each of these tools allows librarians to highlight various resources and provides a platform for collaboration and instruction. This presentation will discuss ways that engineering faculty can use electronic research guides to help students develop their information literacy skills. Examples of these tools and how they are used will be provided.à