School librarians have always been teachers, even before the term "teacher-librarian" was coined. They teach every time they help students select books, locate and evaluate resources for research projects, or troubleshoot a computer problem. When they assist students, they explain and model the steps they are taking. Teaching for school librarians…

There is a "clash of civilizations" going on in the information field--a clash characterized by a brash upstart, Google, and its attendant creations, Google Scholar and Google Books, and the old guard represented by the library world. Librarians who deprecate Google Scholar or simply ignore the Google phenomenon do so at their own risk. Google…

A diverse group, account-based services include a wide variety of sites commonly used by patrons, including online shopping sites, social networks, photo- and video-sharing sites, banking and financial sites, government services, and cloud-based storage. Whether or not a piece of information is obtainable online must be considered when creating…

Thirteen years after being adopted, the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL's) "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" are due for a retrofit. The current "Standards" do not account for the post-Google information landscape in which a blizzard of emerging technologies and unprecedented…

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…

Community and technical colleges have a long-established tradition of instructing students in library use with the goal of increasing information literacy and life-long learning (Branch & Gilchrist, 1996). This article will briefly summarize that history and discuss the impact the information age has had in altering the ways in which that…

This paper examines the embedded librarian program and its impact on the information literacy skills of community college students at Queensborough Community College (QCC). It is a collaboration between an embedded librarian and an English instructor at QCC. The study participants are QCC students enrolled in seven sections of English 101 and…

Did you ever wish for an easy-to-maintain tool to create course-level or assignment-level instruction for online or distance students? LibGuides can provide the solution! LibGuides provide a versatile and easy-to-maintain platform for delivering step-by-step, scaffolded tutorials that enhance learning outcomes through chunking, reduced strain on…

Community, while inherent in assumptions about online education, rarely materializes as an integral component of the experience. Misconceptions and misguided motivations can derail participation and engagement in the online setting. Creating a successful online community is dependent on knowing what works in the face-to-face environment and…

Statistical reporting of library instruction (LI) activities has historically focused on measures relevant to face-to-face (F2F) settings. However, newer forms of LI conducted in the online realm may be difficult to count in traditional ways, leading to inaccurate reporting to both internal and external stakeholders. A thorough literature review…

The National Medical Library of Cuba is currently developing an information literacy program to train users in the use of biomedical databases. This paper describes the experience with the course "Cochrane Library: Evidence-Based Medicine," which aims to teach users how to make the best use of this database, as well as the evidence-based…

School librarians should consistently build relationships to foster collaborative work. For the school librarian, collaboration begins with both the business side of the library and personal interactions. True collaborations involve varied partnerships with shared planning and responsibilities. A co-teacher is expected to share in all aspects of…

The purpose of this work is to examine Wikipedia's role as a tool for instruction in website evaluation. Wikipedia's purpose, structural elements and potential failings as an authoritative information source are examined. Also presented are rationales for using Wikipedia as an instructional tool, namely the overwhelming popularity of Wikipedia.…

In this article, the author talks about the school librarian as information specialist. She stresses that the school librarian's information specialist role is more important than ever. She offers her personal toolkit that consists of four strategies in helping and teaching students to use content responsibly.

The Claremont Colleges Library conducted direct rubric assessment of Pitzer College First-Year Seminar research papers to analyze the impact of diverse levels of librarian course collaborations on information literacy (IL) performance in student writing. Findings indicate that progressive degrees of librarian engagement in IL-related course…