Technical standards are important documents that academic libraries collect to support education and research, particularly for engineering and technology programs. However, standards documents present many unique discovery and access challenges that are confusing and cumbersome for users. To help alleviate these issues, Elsevier started indexing…

The pivot to online teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic enabled science and engineering librarians at Vanderbilt University to expand their teaching roles within graduate-level courses in biomedical engineering, chemistry, and physics. In addition to addressing traditional information literacy skills related to information retrieval and…

Science curricula in academic settings increasingly emphasize the importance of fostering students' science communication skills through coursework and projects. One technique used to build students' multimedia communication skills is digital storytelling. Digital storytelling allows students to tell a subjective story that engages an audience's…

Obtaining reliable information is essential to forming a balanced understanding of the scope and complexity of environmental sustainability, and it is essential for effective participation, decision-making, and research in sustainability-related activities. While the ACRL Standards for Information Literacy (2000) are a good guiding principle for…

For those unfamiliar with Star Trek, "Dunsel" was a term introduced in the episode titled "The Ultimate Computer." It is a term used by Star Fleet cadets to refer to an entity that serves no useful purpose, in this case a human who has been replaced by a machine. The episode touches on finding the best balance between human and machine to run a…

Librarians at Rice and Purdue Universities created novel assignments to teach students important information literacy skills. The assignments required the students to use a third-party web site, PageFlakes and NetVibes, respectively, to create a dynamically updated portal to information they needed for their research and class projects. The use of…

Finding some information on most topics is easy. There are abundant sources of information readily available. However, completing a comprehensive literature review on a particular topic is often difficult, laborious, and time intensive; the project requires organization, persistence, and an understanding of the scholarly communication and…

Two science branch libraries at Penn State's University Park campus hosted film series centered on scientific documentary films. Although the reasons for starting the series differ, both have been successful in meeting their goals. Patron responses have been favorable, and the series have focused attention on the collections and services offered…

Required science courses can have limited interest from some students. In this article, a physics professor and a science librarian describe methods used to engage non majors in learning about science in a non-threatening way. By evaluating the science on selected web sites, and classifying the sites according to six categories (valid,…

In spring of 2006, a task force was charged to look at the feasibility of acquiring hand-held inventory devices for the Pennsylvania State University Libraries (PSUL). The task force's charge was not to look at the whole concept of doing an inventory, but rather to focus on the feasibility of acquiring hand-held devices to use in an inventory.…