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Assessment of Library Instruction for Freshmen Engineering Students

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Engineering Libraries Division Technical Session 5

Tagged Division

Engineering Libraries

Page Count

31

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29837

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29837

Download Count

620

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Paper Authors

biography

Jeff McAdams University of North Carolina, Charlotte Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-6273-5390

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Jeff McAdams is the Science and Engineering Librarian at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he works with the College of Engineering and the Mathematics and Physics departments.

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biography

Rebecca Croxton University of North Carolina, Charlotte

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Rebecca Croxton is the Head of Assessment at J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She completed both a PhD in Educational Studies and a MLIS degree from UNC Greensboro. Before completing her PhD, she worked as a reference librarian at Johnson & Wales University-Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College. A large focus of her day-to-day work and research interests lies in the fields of data informed decision making, information seeking behavior, and student library engagement and motivation.

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Abstract

This study seeks to assess the impact of the current information literacy instruction program offered by the engineering librarian on freshmen engineering students’ abilities to critically evaluate and select credible and meaningful resources in their research and writing. Trends in library literature suggest that students often skip library resources in favor of more familiar search strategies used in their daily lives. However, there is significant, positive correlational evidence which suggests that using the library is closely associated with students’ academic performance and university retention. In order to determine if the local library intervention has an effect, this study includes multiple data sources that are used to examine students’ information literacy skills, comparing findings between those who have engaged with the library’s information literacy instruction program and those who have not. Currently, students voluntarily attend a library workshop and/or a peer-mentoring program that utilizes an online library assignment, each of which is focused on an end-of-semester research paper. This study uses data from four groups of students and analyzes the degree of success for the library interventions. The methods and data are presented for analysis. The findings from this study will be used to make improvements to the local information literacy curricula and to develop a replicable model for information literacy instruction that will promote student success and retention through graduation.

McAdams, J., & Croxton, R. (2018, June), Assessment of Library Instruction for Freshmen Engineering Students Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--29837

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