Information literacy of doctoral students in engineering and the librarian’s role

Teja Koler-Povh · Žiga Turk

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Library Science and Information Literacy Library Science and Information Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions

Abstract

After a reform of the doctoral study programme at the authors’ faculty in Slovenia, an introductory course on scientific research methods became mandatory. It includes the topic of information literacy and covers its five main elements according to ALA 2000 standards. A librarian/researcher runs the practical part. As this course has been running for seven years we were interested in its impacts: (1) what are students’ subjective impressions about the course and (2) if and how such a systematic education on information literacy topics objectively impacts their publishing and citations. The paper first presents the results of the questionnaire among 120 PhD students (the response was 67.5%, i.e. 81 of them) conducted immediately after the completion of the information literacy course. Four indicators were measured to address Question 1. Question 2 was approached by examining students’ citation practices in their own PhD theses and their publishing results. The hypothesis was that the information literacy course increased students’ competence. It was tested using quantitative parameters, such as the number of references in PhD theses and the number of scientific publications written during the study and shortly after it, separately for reformed programme students who attended the information literacy course, and for pre-Bologna reform students who did not take this course. We found that although pre-reform students on average cited a few more references than their post-reform colleagues, there were smaller differences among post-reform than among pre-reform students. Also, the median/typical post-reform students cited more references, what can be attributed to the information literacy course.

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References

2010“Positive” Results Increase Down the Hierarchy of the Sciences 2006Critical Information Literacy: Implications for Instructional Practice 2009Design of the IL-HUMASS survey on information literacy in higher education: A self-assessment approach 2011Standards for Libraries in Higher Education 2004Understanding the millennials: updating our knowledge about students 2009From Student to Scholar: The Academic Library and Social Sciences PhD Students’ Transformation 2007Perception and Selection of Information Sources by Undergraduate Students: Effects of Avoidant Style, Confidence, and Personal Control in Problem-Solving 2013Assessing Information Literacy Skills Demonstrated in an Engineering Design Task

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