Implementing the information literacy plan for NJIT

Earlier this month I discussed the core information literacy (IL) competencies at NJIT. This morning we had a staff meeting on how to implement the information literacy plan. It obviously will not happen overnight. It is the responsibility of the individual academic departments to insure that every undergraduate obtains the necessary instruction in the eight IL outcomes. The librarians will assist faculty in identifying and/or developing relevant educational materials.

Departments and colleges are required to develop their own IL plan for each of their undergraduate programs due to the UCRC (University Curriculum Revision Committee) by October 15, 2009 which will review the IL plans and respond to the college or department by December 1, 2009. All programs will start implementing their IL plans by the Spring 2010 semester. All programs must archive assessment evidence supporting their IL plans in time for the next Middles States Accreditation.

Back to Work - It's Summer Session One

It can be a "downer" to return to work after a vacation, but as I read about all the layoffs in the business world, I must be grateful to have a job. Summer Session One is usually slow at NJIT. Only a small fraction of the students that are here in a normal semester take classes over the summer. The session is only 5 weeks, so every course is very concentrated. Even though the number of class hours is the same over the summer, inevitably less ground is covered. There was an "unwritten rule" that you should not take a course in your major during the summer.

2009 New Jersey Chemistry Olympics Today

I interrupted my vacation to participate in the New Jersey Chemistry Olympics as I've done for many years. NJIT hosts this competition for high school chemistry students throughout the state. I organized and judged an event called the information search which consists of two parts:

• Students bring in a model of a molecule and are judged on its accuracy. This year they had a choice of several pesticide molecules. If they picked a more complex molecule, their score would be higher.
• Students must answer questions about pesticides from electronic resources. I proved a suggested list of databases, but they may "Google away" if they would like. They must answer the questions within 25 minutes.

The competition went very smoothly this year. I had two graduate students assisting me with the information search while an NJIT chemistry professor and a high school teacher evaluated the molecular models.

A team from Tenafly High School won the information search and the entire competition as well.

Last Day before Vacation

One nice thing about working in academia is the vacation time. At NJIT we get 20 vacation days plus 3 personal days. You can only carry 5 weeks from one year to the next, so even if there are no plans to go away, I should take time off to rest at home. The daily grind can get to anyone after a while, so I should use the vacation time to "recharge my batteries."

I will actually come back on Wednesday May 20 to be a judge at the New Jersey Chemistry Olympics.

Bye, for now.

Engineering Information Grant Programs

Today I had a discussion about applying for a grant focusing on Enhancing Communication and Use of Information in Engineering. The details may be found at:

• http://www.eifgrants.org/info/progareas.html
  http://www.eifgrants.org/info/infostmt.html

Some thoughts:

Funds from this grant could be used to hire a consultant to teach students to improve:

Public speaking skills
Powerpoint skills

Another alternative would be to develop an Itunes lecture on this.

I will pursue this further when I return from vacation at the end of this month.

Reference Question of the Day

Again this one came from QANDANJ. A student from Eastern Illinois University wanted review articles on sexual abstinence education programs in high schools. I was able to send her some articles from Academic Search Premier. This person actually gave her full first and last name in the chat transcripts. I just hate it when students use a silly handle.

Do Library User Surveys really tell the real story?

I reported in this blog a few weeks ago that after a user of Scifinder Scholar asked for reinstatement of the client version, I ran a poll of users to ascertain their preference. Out of 17 people who answered the poll, 9 preferrred the client, 7 the web, and 1 had no preference. 80% of the registered users at that point did not vote. At that point I restored one user to the client version splitting my 2 Scifinder seats.

I have carefully monitored the usage of Scifnder for 3 1/2 weeks after I restored the client version. Statistics show that there were 174 uses of the web (69.3%) and 77 uses of the client (30.7%). Go figure.

Do library user surveys tell the real story?

QANDANJ Questions of the Day

This morning I had unusually busy shift for QANDANJ. When two very similar questions come back to back from the public queue, I suspect that high school students from the same class are given the same assignment and are told to contact the chat service.

Question #1:
I need a book on lager sylt concentration camp for my school research project.
The only books and articles that I found were in German, so I had to default to doing a Google search. I did find some sites:

Question #2
Could you help me find any good books or encyclopedias on the mauthausen, austria concentration camp.? please.
I was more succesful here. I actually found some good newspaper articles in Lexis-Nexis

Core Information Literacy Competencies at NJIT

1. Define the research topic and the need for information by:

a. Articulating a research question, problem, or issue.
b. Obtaining background information to identify and define key concepts and terminology related to the research (e.g., putting the research question in context).
c. Defining a manageable focus and timeline for completing the project.
d. Identifying the types of materials that can be used for research (books, journals, Web sites, government documents, primary sources, datasets, media, technical reports, etc.( and that are needed and appropriate for the project.
e. Recognizing that information may be limited, unavailable, or may not exist on a given topic.

2. Develop and implement an effective search strategy appropriate for an information need by:

a. Differentiating among the types of reference sources (specialized encyclopedias, article databases, citation indexes, bibliographies, library catalogs, search engines, etc.) and the purposes of each.
b. Choosing and accessing appropriate reference sources for a given research question.
c. Using search terms appropriate to the research tool and the topic.
d. Transferring skills learned in previous research efforts to new projects.

3. Locate and retrieve information by:


a. Using the library’s online catalog, online union catalogs, article databases, Web search engineers, and other research tools effectively, in print and online.
b. Interpreting citations accurately and using appropriate components of a citation to search for the items.
c. Recognizing key elements of call numbers and URLs and using them to locate library materials and Web sites.

4. Evaluate information by:
a. Investigating the author’s or sponsoring body’s expertise, credibility, and points of view.
b. Assessing the authority, accuracy, reliability, completeness, and timeliness of the information found in books, articles, Web sites, etc.
c. Distinguishing between reliable and unreliable sources of information, scholarly and popular sources, substantiated facts and points of view.

5. Assess the research strategy by:
a. Determining whether the information retrieved is relevant and sufficient for the project or whether additional sources are needed.
b. Analyzing successes and failures, revising research topics, and trying different techniques and research tools as needed.

6. Employ principles consistent with the ethical and legal uses of information by:
a. Demonstrating knowledge of the issues regarding intellectual property and plagiarism in a U.S. academic setting.
b. Citing and acknowledging sources appropriately.
c. Creating accurate references using a consistent citation style.

7. Organize, synthesize, and communicate information by:
a. Examining, categorizing, and storing citations to the materials discovered while conducting research, e.g., in reading and online searching.
b. Managing the information selected and the research materials consulted.
c. Using and integrating information from a variety of sources appropriate to the research question.
d. Presenting the information in an effective and coherent manner to communicate it to others.

8. Effectively navigate the body of knowledge within the student’s major discipline by:

a. Recognizing how the literature in the major discipline is organized.
b. Distinguishing among primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in the major discipline and their uses.
c. Using key research tools and databases in the major discipline.

These core competencies were derived in whole or part from the UCLA Library Information Literacy Program Steering Committee, "Information Literacy at UCLA: The Core Competencies" (March 7, 2005). UCLA Library. Information Literacy. Paper 03. http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclalib/il/03.