Engineering Graduate Student Information Literacy: Are We Meeting the Need?

Abstract

Library instruction for engineering graduate students at this university has historically been ad hoc; librarians respond to requests for instruction, but to date they have not provided instruction as an intentional program of information literacy topics. Engineering librarians promote library services at department orientation sessions and have worked with the college’s Graduate Education Programs office to present instruction on topics including literature reviews, data management, finding funding, and reading retention. Attendance at and response to these instruction sessions suggest that a formal program of instruction can be beneficial to engineering graduate students. Considering that individual students approach the librarians for instruction on topics such as strategies for literature reviews, or that individual faculty members approach the librarians for instruction to the students in their labs on topics such as best resources for researching specific subjects or instruction on citation management applications, one might reasonably conclude that there is an unmet need for a broad instruction program. In this work-in-progress, the engineering librarians of this institution are disseminating a Qualtrics survey of engineering graduate students on their needs for library instruction. The survey will differentiate between students who are writing theses and those who are not. By looking at students who are doing research and those who are not as two separate populations, the survey may identify needs for instruction that go beyond common library instruction topics such as literature reviews and the library had not previously considered. This paper will summarize the results of the survey and discuss plans for using the survey results in implementation of an instruction program of information literacy topics.