Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Meaningful and productive collaboration between librarians and faculty remains a significant, though frequently elusive goal for many academic institutions. Paradoxically, while the depth and power of collaboration emerges from the interactions between librarians and faculty, the possibilities for success often results from various institutional factors. Authentic collaboration does not exist in isolation. It is found in colleges and universities that act on their belief in the potential of these relationships to benefit students, faculty and staff. In this presentation, we will explore various understandings of collaboration, as well as the barriers and pathways to success. Perhaps most importantly, we will discuss and highlight individual and organizational actions that facilitate a capacity to manifest the collaborative imperative. Interdisciplinary research on caring and community-building, organizational culture and learning organizations will provide the basis for this presentation and discussion.

Devising new ways to collaborate with faculty can be a challenge. In offering professors the opportunity to replace a written paper with a LibGuide assignment, the librarians hoped that the close working relationship necessary to ensure the success of this pilot would allow us to become actively engaged in the classroom. From the perspectives of faculty, a LibGuides assignment can represent an interesting alternative to a research paper that offers flexibility in design and content. For students, a LibGuide assignment can not only be fun but also challenging, since they will have to assess everything they put in the guide.

<p>The aim of the research project is to investigate the effectiveness of an information literacy intervention for first year engineering students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Information literacy has been identified as a necessary outcome of tertiary education. It refers to the life-long learning competencies of finding and using information in order to solve problems, to make decisions and to create new knowledge. Information literacy education has evolved from earlier forms of library user education, such as bibliographic instruction, and is central to the mission of academic libraries. However, librarians responsible for information literacy programmes seldom evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions. In today&rsquo / s climate of accountability and outcomes-based education, it is necessary to provide evidence of the benefits of the user education that libraries provide. The researcher uses the American College and Research Library (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, which are internationally recognized and widely used by South African academic librarians, as a benchmark to evaluate an intervention for a group of first year students enrolled for a mechanical engineering course. The intervention consists of two workshops which aim to teach the students to find information relevant to their essays via the university&rsquo / s OPAC, various engineering databases and to teach them how to reference and cite their sources in their essays. The research methodology assessed students&rsquo / information literacy before and after the two workshops with the use of a questionnaire consisting of a set of questions based on some of the ACRL standards. The questionnaire also gathered data on students&rsquo / prior experience of libraries, reading and computers, which might impact on their information literacy...</p>

<p>The aim of the research project is to investigate the effectiveness of an information literacy intervention for first year engineering students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Information literacy has been identified as a necessary outcome of tertiary education. It refers to the life-long learning competencies of finding and using information in order to solve problems, to make decisions and to create new knowledge. Information literacy education has evolved from earlier forms of library user education, such as bibliographic instruction, and is central to the mission of academic libraries. However, librarians responsible for information literacy programmes seldom evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions. In today&rsquo / s climate of accountability and outcomes-based education, it is necessary to provide evidence of the benefits of the user education that libraries provide. The researcher uses the American College and Research Library (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, which are internationally recognized and widely used by South African academic librarians, as a benchmark to evaluate an intervention for a group of first year students enrolled for a mechanical engineering course. The intervention consists of two workshops which aim to teach the students to find information relevant to their essays via the university&rsquo / s OPAC, various engineering databases and to teach them how to reference and cite their sources in their essays. The research methodology assessed students&rsquo / information literacy before and after the two workshops with the use of a questionnaire consisting of a set of questions based on some of the ACRL standards. The questionnaire also gathered data on students&rsquo / prior experience of libraries, reading and computers, which might impact on their information literacy...</p>

Magister Bibliothecologiae - MBibl / The aim of the research project is to investigate the effectiveness of an information literacy intervention for first year engineering students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Information literacy has been identified as a necessary outcome of tertiary education. It refers to the life-long learning competencies of finding and using information in order to solve problems, to make decisions and to create new knowledge. Information literacy education has evolved from earlier forms of library user education, such as bibliographic instruction, and is central to the mission of academic libraries. However, librarians responsible for information literacy programmes seldom evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions. In today's climate of accountability and outcomes-based education, it is necessary to provide evidence of the benefits of the user education that libraries provide. The researcher uses the American College and Research Library (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, which are internationally recognized and widely used by South African academic librarians, as a benchmark to evaluate an intervention for a group of first year students enrolled for a mechanical engineering course. The intervention consists of two workshops which aim to teach the students to find information relevant to their essays via the university's OPAC, various engineering databases and to teach them how to reference and cite their sources in their essays. The research methodology assessed students' information literacy before and after the two workshops with the use of a questionnaire consisting of a set of questions based on some of the ACRL standards. The questionnaire also gathered data on students' prior experience of libraries, reading and computers, which might impact on their information literacy. / South Africa

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