A report of findings from a content analysis of 191 course-related research assignment handouts distributed to undergraduates on 28 college campuses across the U.S., as part of Project Information Literacy. A majority of handouts in the sample emphasized standards about the mechanics of compiling college research papers, more so than guiding…

One of the challenges of the Biotechnology industry is keeping up to date with the rapid pace of change and that much of the information, which students learn in their undergraduate studies, will be out of date in a few years. It is therefore crucial that Biotechnology students have the skills to access the relevant information for their studies…

Although teacher-librarians learn searching skills in preservice programs, most classroom teachers do not. This paper serves as a guide for educators on how to help their students develop essential searching skills; i.e., move the best results up to the top of the list, evaluate a works-cited page, guide them to their search tool options, or…

This study sought to better understand search performance using an online portal containing a collection of heterogeneous library resources for K-12 students. Search performance is examined in terms of search success, search time, strategy, and effort. This study revealed unsuccessful searches tended to take longer than successful searches;…

Information literacy is becoming a key component of general education programs nationwide. As a critical part of most general education programs, the basic communication course is on the frontlines of the charge to teach information literacy skills to first-year students. Thus, the information literacy skills of basic course students should be…

This article reports that the Scopus Student Ambassador (SAm) program, funded by Elsevier, permitted the University of Connecticut (UConn) Libraries to hire graduate students to teach citation searching, using both Scopus and Web of Science, to other graduate students. The training does not cost the libraries anything, and it is free for graduate…

Background: College students may fail to practice information literacy skills because they are unaware of their skill level or are not concerned with the risks. Purpose: In order to develop an effective message that motivates college students to learn online health information literacy skills, a better understanding of perceptions about such…

The author taught information literacy skills courses at the University of Notre Dame and created active learning exercises including a pirate theme to simulate searching for buried treasure (information inside of databases). This article provides examples of cartoons, quotations, and humor used in both classes.

This article presents an annotated list of seven recent articles on the topic of information literacy assessment. They include: (1) "The Three Arenas of Information Literacy Assessment" (Bonnie Gratch Lindauer); (2) "Testing the Effectiveness of Interactive Multimedia for Library-User Education" (Karen Markey et al.); (3)…

Purpose: Locating information on the internet is an important skill in the Information Society. Some recent studies showed that searching using non-English terms is a more demanding task than searching in English. Based on these observations, this paper aims to apply the Instructional System Design (ISD) methodology to analyse, design and…

An investigation into the effectiveness of information literacy instruction for undergraduates at a technological university suggested some deficiencies in students' information literacy skills. Also shown is that a careful and rigorous approach to assessment can provide the basis for improvement.

In response to the rapid advances in information technology, greater pressure has been placed on academic libraries and teaching faculty to incorporate information literacy skills into the curriculum. Although these skills have been taught for decades, the principles and concepts of information literacy have taken on new urgency as they are…

This paper examines whether a single first-year inquiry-based seminar can have a lasting impact on students' academic skills. Fifty-four Inquiry students and 71 comparable students participated in three performance tests: a research skills exercise; an evaluation of oral presentation ability; and a test of critical reasoning and teamwork skills.…

A report of preliminary findings and analysis from student discussion groups held on 7 U.S. campuses in Fall 2008, as part of Project Information Literacy. Qualitative data from discussions with higher education students across the country suggest that conducting research is particularly challenging. Students' greatest challenges are related to…

Following up on the general framework of the research study of Yip (2007), this article sets out a similar research question, investigating the differences between high and low academic achieving Hong Kong university students based on their different learning and study strategies. In this study, we recruited 100 university students who pursued…