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The aim of this study is to show student perception of the value of library reference and consultation work in the building of information literacy skills. Using student answers to questions about library research help received in a required first year course, the authors analyzed motivations for use of librarian aid, and the types of assistance sought and that ideally could have been utilized. The authors found students primarily received librarian help with locating books, and that students often believed they would have benefited from more in-depth assistance but did not ask for it.

The Washington State University Honors College course, UH 290, "Science as a Way of Knowing," engages freshmen in scientific inquiry and scholarly literature research. The UH 290 instructor, a learning design consultant, and two librarians collaborated to develop and deliver the course's information literacy curriculum. The team used student surveys, research blogs, case studies, library instruction sessions, homework problem sets and exams. Students gained from scaffolded instruction including hands-on practice activities and feedback; embedded assessments informed adjustments to the course syllabus and activities. This case study details the progressively improved use of this approach and these tools over two semesters.

As academic institutions have devoted increased efforts to information literacy skills assessment, more opportunities for collaboration between the library and other campus organizations have developed. The authors describe their experiences concerning a collaborative project to revise a credit-bearing information literacy course. Theoretical constructs are used to analyze the processess.

The aim of this study is to show student perception of the value of library reference and consultation work in the building of information literacy skills. Using student answers to questions about library research help received in a required first year course, the authors analyzed motivations for use of librarian aid, and the types of assistance sought and that ideally could have been utilized. The authors found students primarily received librarian help with locating books, and that students often believed they would have benefited from more in-depth assistance but did not ask for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roots of Contemporary Issues (HISTORY 105/305) is the foundational, required course for Washington State University undergraduates. All sections feature a term-length research project with scaffolded Library Research Assignments (LRAs) and a final research paper. This research study centered on when and how topic formation/thesis development, source selection, and citation skills develop across the LRAs and involved analysis of 445 randomly selected student cases spread across five years. The researchers examined source types and how often sources in the preliminary stages of research appear in final papers. Information is offered about how students use annotated bibliographies and outlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the Washington State University Library Instruction Team undertook a complete redesign of its two most central online tutorials, the task to incorporate multimedia challenged us to adopt newer pedagogical models into our information literacy curriculum. Drawing from several recent designs and learning theories, including cognitive load, Mayer's theory of multimedia learning, Anderson's theory of ACT-R cognitive architecture, and others, we successfully updated and implemented the new tutorials and conducted a user experience assessment project. This article explores learning theories, reflects on their actualization within the video learning objects of the new tutorial, and examines students' responses to the redesigned tutorial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the support of an internal grant, the Washington State University Library Instruction Department was able to undertake an assessment program to measure the use and effectiveness of online tutorials built by the department. Students viewed four of the tutorial products and were asked to perform tasks using these tutorials. They also answered a number of questions designed to garner information about attitudes, usage patterns and perceptions of library resources and services. Results of the assessment activities and future plans for improving and expanding our tutorial offerings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This annotated bibliography presents a review of articles published on the topic of information literacy in teacher education since the late 1980s. Many of the articles outline concerns about pre-service teachers who graduate with insufficient information literacy skills, who are unprepared to teach these skills to their future students, and who do not understand the role of the school librarian as an instructional collaborator. On the other hand, many articles describe innovative and successful programs where exposure to librarians, integration of information literacy instruction, attention to library research, or introduction of a process approach to information use can produce new teachers who are equipped to collaborate with school librarians and to teach information literacy skills to their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, there has been a steady rise in interest among academic librarians in the idea of outreach. Outreach from the academic library can take many forms, but it is often built around a commitment to instruction. At Washington State University, a commitment to information literacy instruction across the curriculum and an organizational structure that includes both an independent Library Instruction department and a network of subject specialists has facilitated the rise of a programmatic approach to instructional outreach that allows librarians and faculty to work together to develop creative approaches to the integration of information literacy instruction across the academic curriculum. This article identifies some of the characteristics of new models for instructional outreach in the academic library and describes two instructional outreach programs at Washington State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As academic institutions have devoted increased efforts to information literacy skills assessment, more opportunities for collaboration between the library and other campus organizations have developed. The authors describe their experiences concerning a collaborative project to revise a credit-bearing information literacy course. Theoretical constructs are used to analyze the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]