When patients need information, they may visit a doctor, ask a nurse, or look online. But these are not the only sources of information used by patients. This paper examines discussion threads in online renal support groups to describe how people living with kidney failure conceive of help, information and support. I use Actor Network Theory to…

La Trobe University Library has embarked on an institution-wide project with the objective of enabling students to engage with scholarly and credible information from the first year. This initiative by the library is in response to La Trobe curriculum reform. In particular, it aligns information literacy with the inquiry/research graduate…

How information literate are the Google generation, and what information literacy skills do they bring to university? For university libraries, understanding student prior knowledge provides a foundation on which to introduce appropriate learning activities during the first year. In 2009, in response to a new pedagogical model in health sciences,…

Medical practitioners need the skills to find relevant information and evaluate its authenticity, validity, and reliability. The learning of information literacy has been embedded in the University of Western Australia (UWA) medical course since 2000. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the enhanced information literacy…

This paper describes a study comparing the information literacy skills of commencing undergraduate and postgraduate Information Studies students at Curtin University. The study was conducted by means of an online multiple choice survey, which students completed during the first few weeks of their course. The results show that a number of both…

Information literacy is an integral generic skill or graduate attribute in higher education, with many higher education institutions developing information literacy policies and including information literacy in graduate attribute policies. Barrie (2007) notes that universities around the world are increasingly concerned with ensuring that their…

Argues that any trend that moves librarians away from libraries and into academic classroom settings is accomplished at the expense of students and ultimately weakens, rather than strengthens, the role librarians can play in higher education. Suggests that librarians' areas of expertise lie in information skills rather than specific disciplines.…

While the "information superhighway" offers new opportunities for independent research and study, the amount of information available requires users to have a high level of information-literacy skills. Librarians are in the best position to facilitate the development of these skills and to instruct clients in the use of search and…

This paper examines an information literacy collaborative research project at the University of Otago between a sociology lecturer and a subject specialist librarian, The research project was undertaken to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of embedding information literacy skills into academic assessment requirements in a first and a third…

In 2004, the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology at the University of Tasmania undertook a project to evaluate students' information literacy skills and to get a picture of how and where information literacy is taught in the faculty. This paper outlines how relationship-building between the Science Library and faculty led to the…

This reports a study that seeks to explore the experience of students majoring in technology and design in an undergraduate education degree. It examines their experiences in finding and using information for a practical assignment. In mapping the variation of the students' experience, the study uses a qualitative, interpretive approach to analyse…

The trends in higher education towards internationalisation and increasing dependence on ICTs (information and communication technologies) are contributing to the diversification of the student population and their learning needs. In this context learners may encounter an array of educational and technological challenges. For international…

Information literacy has become an important skill for undergraduate students due to societal changes that have seen information become a valuable commodity, the need for graduates to become lifelong learners, and the recognition that information literacy is an underpinning generic skill for effective learning in higher education. This paper…

This paper reports the results of a University of Canberra Library survey of student research knowledge, skills, tools and resources. Students are experiencing difficulties interrogating databases, the internet and library catalogues because of the lack of consistency in terminology and various methods of interrogation. This research was an…