As critical thinking, student-centered learning, and assessment have become essential to the mission of institutions of higher education, librarians are increasingly challenged to assist the university in meeting these goals by teaching information literacy. Information seeking behavior of students has been studied as faculty and librarians…

An introductory library course at Northeastern Oklahoma State University was examined to determine whether bibliographic skills acquired through this course were comparable to skills acquired by students who had not taken this course. The hypothesis was that students acquire no greater skills through Library Science 1011 than through immersion in…

A documents librarian and a communication instructor attempted to promote the use of government publications by providing bibliographic instruction as an integral part of an argumentation course in the Department of Communication and Theatre at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. Specialized lectures related to the needs of the…

Business education students need courses to teach them how to effectively use the business library.

A brief questionnaire was sent to a random selection of 70 librarians in the State University of New York Librarians' Association Directory to determine the frequency of their use of humor at the reference desk and in the library instruction classroom, their perceptions of classroom humor, and their reasons for using humor in these situations.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate what effect a pre-session given prior to a typical library instruction class had upon the affective experience of freshman composition students. Students in six paired classes were given pre-test and post-test questionnaires to determine if there was a difference in scores in four areas measured by the…

Discusses the role of stacks support staff and student assistants in providing point-of-use assistance and instruction in Oregon State University's library. A user's survey is described; staff training is explained; and survey instruments and Stack Maintenance Team recommendations are appended. (LRW)

Describes methods used at the University of Akron (Ohio) library to increase the usage of government publications, including cataloging that appears in the online catalog, integrating them into bibliographic instruction, listing in pathfinders, and presenting workshops. Examples are appended. (LRW)

A questionnaire was distributed to 575 college library users to explore the extent of their use of federal, state, municipal, international, and foreign documents, as well as usage of various bibliographic tools to gain access to them. Responses demonstrated that bibliographic instruction in the classroom significantly affected access to documents…

Describes a survey instrument developed at the University of Northern Colorado library that compared students' self-assessed library skills with a test component. Findings are reported that indicated no dramatic trend of higher proficiency with increasing academic status, although self-assessed skills showed such a trend. (seven references) (LRW)

Describes a study of Ohio State University Libraries' net.TUTOR program that provides Web-based instruction on various aspects of using the Internet for research. Analyzes data extracted from 465 user-history logs to determine patterns of usage by course-affiliated users versus general users. (Author/LRW)

This basic discussion of the organization of bibliographic instruction programs in an academic setting includes consideration of factors involved in implementing an innovative program. Several stages in developing and organizing a systematic program are reviewed: creating student awareness of the academic library in general, introduction to use of…

Explores issues surrounding efforts to introduce online catalogs to users and presents relevant research results from Northwestern University's "Educating the Online Catalog User" project. Highlights include attitudes and preconceptions about online catalogs and instruction, research on online catalog use, suggestions for online catalog teaching,…

Reports on a two-phase study of academic libraries to identify patterns of database use and the factors that might influence this use. Online data was used as well as results from a survey that investigated factors that may influence online use, including level of instruction and availability of remote access. (LRW)

Discusses reference-use statistics in academic libraries. Highlights include new functions and resources, limits of traditional counting methods, ranking the sources, the Internet's impact on instruction, computer-assisted versus one-on-one instruction, and creative solutions to reference services. (AEF)