How can we better engage adult learners during information literacy sessions? How do we increase students' perception of the relevance and importance of information literacy skills for academic work and life in the real world? To explore these questions, the ARCS Model of Motivational Design and Problem-Based Learning were used to develop…

A research training module was designed to help graduate students locate, read and comprehend art abstracts and full-text articles that they need for their assignments, term papers and theses. At the end of the training module, the students were posttested. They were given individual research projects for which they had to select the search terms,…

EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) has been heavily used by UMUC students since its implementation in fall 2011, but experience has shown that it is not always the most appropriate source for satisfying students' information needs and that they often need assistance in understanding how the tool works and how to use it effectively. UMUC librarians have…

This workbook contains 10 chapters describing the various phases of planning and conducting library research: (1) The Libraries at NCSU (North Carolina State University); (2) The Research Paper; (3) Understanding Call Numbers; (4) Locating Background Information Using Encyclopedias; (5) Locating Information in Books (including sections on using…

Presents a template for teaching traditional library research and one for incorporating the Web. Highlights include the differences between directories and search engines; devising search strategies; creating search terms; how to choose search engines; evaluating online resources; helpful Web sites; and how to read URLs to evaluate a Web site's…

Treasures await students and researchers on the shelves of libraries and archives across the country, but unfortunately they often remain unknown to the "modern" researcher who limits his/her research to using the Internet. The process of physically going to the library stacks and browsing the shelves in a subject area is on the decline…

Library research skills are included in a required graduate level research methods course offered at Bowling Green State University (Ohio). The course--Biological Documentation Techniques--is broadly involved with biological literature retrieval, bibliographic techniques, and data storage. It is taught cooperatively by the Department of Biological…

College students were trained to do online searching in a mandatory research paper course. Bibliographies from student papers, search transcripts, questionnaires administered to students, the library's serials holdings, and interviews with instructors and librarians provided data for analyses of students' database and library searches and the…

Describes some of the most active school library programs for introducing elementary and secondary school students to online searching. Highlights include searches performed by librarians and students; skills acquired by students (search strategy, choosing appropriate databases, accessing information online); frequently searched databases; and…

Future school library media specialists will serve as information consultants to students and teachers and as gatekeepers to new information technologies and resources. School information services will provide easy access to local, regional, and national collections. Two high schools in Maryland and suburban Chicago are experimenting with…

Discusses the development of research skills through online searching by secondary school students, and compares online and optical data disk systems. The factors compared include cost, currency, subject areas, number of uses, search time, preparation needed, search methods, help needed, and alternative uses of the equipment. (CLB)

Describes a library instruction program at the University of Illinois that consists of a narrowly focused one-shot lecture, complemented by a series of library activities that can be completed independently by students. The reasons for revising the program, the variety of instructional approaches and media used, and the effectiveness of the…

Two articles briefly review experiences of secondary schools using DIALOG's Classroom Instruction Program, and four New Jersey school districts that have experimented with using Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service to teach online searching at both the elementary and secondary levels. An annotated bibliography lists 12 relevant journal articles and…

Discusses the rationale for and development of a course for undergraduate biology majors which includes a bibliographic instruction component. This component is described in detail, and the importance of cooperation between the biology faculty and library staff is discussed. Examples of assignments, research projects, and laboratory exercises are…

Discusses ways in which online searching promotes the development of research, computer, and critical thinking skills, and reviews two databases that offer access to information on elementary school science. Lesson activities for grades four through six are suggested, and information on the vendor, system requirements, and cost of each database is…