Due to a shortage of librarians to teach classes coupled with a growing student body, librarians at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) decided to explore alternative means to deliver instruction. Their charge was to supplement traditional classroom instruction by utilizing ETSU's course management system (Desire2Learn, D2L) to inform students…

This paper describes an exploratory study investigating the impact of problem-based learning and clicker technology as active learning strategies at the American University of Sharjah Library, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Studies compared traditional and active learning classes. The present article maps the successes and challenges of these unique…

Many academic libraries have embraced the concept of the information commons or the learning commons. These library spaces consist of collections of tools, services and programs intended to enhance the student learning experience. According to Scott Bennett (2008), an information commons supports learning, while the learning commons…

In order to reach distance students in times of financial uncertainty, librarians must be creative. While much has been written about Camtasia, Captivate and Jing tutorial software, Adobe Presenter, a Microsoft PowerPoint plug-in, has not been discussed. This article describes how our library team created multimedia tutorial projects at Idaho…

The American Association of School Librarians "Standards for the 21st Century Learner" (2007) expresses nine fundamental common beliefs. One of these beliefs is that "ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught" (AASL 2007, 1). It is important for library media specialists to understand that teaching ethical behavior is much more…

The staff at University of Connecticut are participating in Elsevier's Student Ambassador Program (SAmP) in which graduate students train their peers on "citation searching" research using Scopus and Web of Science, two tremendous citation databases. They are in the fourth semester of these training programs, and they are wildly successful: They…

The authors implemented a survey of faculty attitudes toward library research instruction that is closely related to two previously published surveys. After reviewing their results, the authors raise questions about the significance of some of the results of all three surveys.

This article reports on surveys conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2008 by members of the Louisiana Academic Library Information Network Consortium (LALINC) for the purpose of chronicling both the status of information literacy programs in Louisiana and the role of general education directors in program formation. Results from each survey are given,…

Information literacy has gained importance over the last few decades, not only among librarians, but also with higher education faculty. Information literacy instruction is important for all college-level students. However, it is essential for teacher education students who must not only be information literate themselves, but also be able to…

The purpose of this project was to investigate how students' search strategies changed over the course of a semester-long information literacy class. Data collection included four different paper questionnaires corresponding to course content in the spring 2008 semester. Seventy-seven participants completed the questionnaires and course work in…

This is Part 2 of a three-part summary of selected articles from the journals of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) over a period of thirty-five years from 1972 to 2007. This three-part series in the April, May, and June (2009) issues of "School Library Media Activities Monthly" ("SLMAM") will illustrate the evolution in…

In this study, I investigated the effectiveness of the knowledge map (k-map) instructional strategy compared to a text-based presentation in an online environment. K-maps consist of node-link representations of concepts that together form the content of a topic or domain. The benefits of using k-maps are that concepts and ideas are represented as…

Despite the efforts that have been made to develop the information skills of undergraduate students, there are still limitations that one shot sessions of face-to-face library instruction or online tutorials present when they are the only options used to develop specific information skills in students. The purpose of this study was to investigate…

Higher education information literacy standards have readily addressed cognitive skills, although affective competencies--the emotional abilities that students must acquire in order to successfully navigate the research process--have not yet been incorporated into standards. This paper presents examples of current information literacy standards,…

Modern composition instructors often use and teach research methods for Internet search engines and electronic databases. It is not their intent to turn back the clock. However, if they can help students connect the world of Internet searches and the university library, they can promote information literacy in its broadest sense by developing…