Friday 11 January 2008

Postgrad Information Literacy

I happened upon this interesting study via the Morris Miller new book display:

Newton, A. (2007). Reaching out to research students: Information literacy in context. In E. Connor (Ed.), Evidence-based librarianship : Case studies and active learning exercises (pp. 119-140). Oxford: Chandos. (yes I used Endnote to create this reference!)

Author is from Leeds Uni in the UK but surveyed practice in four major Australian unis as well as her own researchers. Her 14 point student needs survey is interesting in its simplicity. (Asks questions like "I have a strategy for keeping up to date with the latest publications...". (p.128)

Also interesting is that we are already doing most of what she thinks is needed in postgrad sessions but adds "copyright" as an essential component and "locating and accessing theses" (p. 136)

Probably most interesting to me was her suggested session structure: a half day workshop in 2 parts:
Part 1. Effective literature searching...
Part2. Information use, following academic discussions, avoiding plagiarism, managing info (i.e. Endnote)

I will certainly follow up these suggestions with the Morris Miller Team...