If there's one thing you learn today, let it be this: keywords. Not specific keywords but the idea of them. If you whisper the correct keywords into the algorithm, you will achieve relevance. If you don't achieve relevance on the first try (which is super common), imagine you're an academic with a specialization in a super-niche disciplinary area…

This paper explores the connection between critical theory, information evaluation, and the instructional practice of critique for STEM students and librarian instructors. Using an emerging theory and instructional method, the authors examine how to more deeply include voices that have historically been excluded from STEM information critique. The…

This study was designed to inform the renaming of a credit-bearing information literacy course. Researchers surveyed librarians to gather existing information literacy course titles. They also surveyed and held focus groups with students to learn what students consider when choosing electives, to understand how well the researchers' current…

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effect of instructional scaffolding on information literacy skills of college students in an English Composition I (ENG 101) course at Urban Community College in the Southeast. Information literacy is defined as a set of skills to recognize an information need as well as locate, evaluate, and…

The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education calls on librarians to teach complex concepts rather than discrete skills, but many librarians have struggled with implementing such teaching. This article reports on a revised lesson for information literacy instruction in First Year Writing classes, created using Grant Wiggins and Jay…

Librarians at Brigham Young University compared search statement development between traditional lecture and flipped instruction sessions. Students in lecture sessions scored significantly higher on developing search statements than those in flipped sessions. However, student evaluations show a strong preference for pedagogies that incorporate…

Qualitative analysis of reflective essays by first-year students in an academic skills course documented outcomes related to the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Student narratives showed how novices encounter the clusters of concepts described in the Framework as…

This case study describes the use of flipped teaching for information literacy instruction in a new course, "Drill, Blast, and Excavate GeoE 498," within the mining option for geological engineering (GeoE) students. These students will enter the mining industry with less discipline-specific knowledge than a student that graduated with a…

In this study, researchers evaluate a homework exercise assigned before a standalone information literacy session. Students in a Master of Education program completed a worksheet using the ERIC database thesaurus. The researchers conducted pre- and posttests within a single library session to assess student learning, using a control group for…

How can we better engage adult learners during information literacy sessions? How do we increase students' perception of the relevance and importance of information literacy skills for academic work and life in the real world? To explore these questions, the ARCS Model of Motivational Design and Problem-Based Learning were used to develop…

In this column, the author discusses a lesson in the credit-bearing information literacy course for honors undergraduates at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The lesson comes last in a unit including resource instruction, search practice, and culminating in the reading and evaluation of a scholarly work. The course, Honors 235: Research in…

The train-the-trainer model has great potential for expanding information literacy programs without placing undue burden on already overextended librarians; it is surprisingly underused in academic libraries. At the University of Kentucky, we employed this model to create a new information literacy program in an introductory biology lab. We…

Libraries are continually changing to meet the needs of users; this includes implementing discovery tools, also referred to as web-scale discovery tools, to make searching library resources easier. Because these tools are so new, it is difficult to establish definitive best practices for teaching these tools; however, promising practices are…

This paper describes the methodology and implementation of a case study introducing the scientific literature and creative experiment design to honors general chemistry laboratory students. The purpose of this study is to determine whether first-year chemistry students can develop information literacy skills while they engage with the primary…

For the forty-third time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with the…