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…

As the international student population continues to grow, librarians must adjust their instruction to meet the needs of students who are adapting to a new country, culture, and language. This study assesses first-year international students as they engage in the research process through the completion of concept maps that precede database…

In this column, the author discusses a lesson in the credit-bearing information literacy course for honors undergraduates at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The lesson comes last in a unit including resource instruction, search practice, and culminating in the reading and evaluation of a scholarly work. The course, Honors 235: Research in…

This paper presents a descriptive model of the subject matter taught in courses on expert search in ALA-accredited programs, answering the question: What is taught in formal professional education on search expertise? The model emerged from a grounded content analysis of 44 course descriptions and 16 syllabi, and was validated via a review of…

The train-the-trainer model has great potential for expanding information literacy programs without placing undue burden on already overextended librarians; it is surprisingly underused in academic libraries. At the University of Kentucky, we employed this model to create a new information literacy program in an introductory biology lab. We…

Libraries are continually changing to meet the needs of users; this includes implementing discovery tools, also referred to as web-scale discovery tools, to make searching library resources easier. Because these tools are so new, it is difficult to establish definitive best practices for teaching these tools; however, promising practices are…

Health professionals frequently do not possess the necessary information-seeking abilities to conduct an effective search in databases and Internet sources. Reference librarians may teach health professionals these information and technology skills through the Big6 information literacy model (Big6). This article aims to address this issue. It also…

Since the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) unveiled its WorldCat Local library catalog discovery layer in 2008, library instructors have debated how to incorporate this tool into their teaching. WorldCat Local's faceted searching brings both educational benefits and unexpected challenges to the classroom. Instructors frequently hold formal…

Inquiry does not replace information literacy; rather, it encompasses it. Inquiry-based learning invites school librarians to step into all aspects of instructional planning, from activating prior knowledge straight through to reflection. Libraries pursuing inquiry-based instruction are building on the bedrock of information literacy, not starting…

This article describes the rationale and efficacy of a graduate-level teaching module providing loosely structured practice with real archives. Introducing early career scholars to archival methods changed their beliefs about knowledge, research, teaching, and their discipline(s). This case study suggests that archives can be productive training…

Google Scholar is a free service that provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly works and to connect patrons with the resources libraries provide. The researchers in this study analyzed Google Scholar usage data from 2006 for three library tools at San Francisco State University: SFX link resolver, Web Access Management proxy server,…

This paper describes the methodology and implementation of a case study introducing the scientific literature and creative experiment design to honors general chemistry laboratory students. The purpose of this study is to determine whether first-year chemistry students can develop information literacy skills while they engage with the primary…

The ability to navigate and understand the chemical literature is integral to the scientific research process. Learning these skills is therefore an important, though often overwhelming, part of an undergraduate chemical education. We describe an inquiry-based program designed to help chemistry students begin to learn to search and read the…

Over the last three decades, promotion of information literacy has become one of the main goals of librarians and academics. As the emergence of information technologies has raised new challenges and roles for users, information literacy has shifted from the concept of simple training to the provision of the skills and competencies that are…

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…