Developing information literacy skills in freshmen engineering technology students

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the information society the ability of technology graduates to be information literate has become critically important. Through the collaboration of a Mechanical Engineering Technology professor and an academic librarian, a project was designed which increased students' information research skills, their awareness of other sources of technical information, and their communication and team building skills. One problem faced by the authors was to develop strategies to integrate these skills into a curriculum that is already very demanding without deleting any of the elements in the current curriculum. A pre-test, post-test, and student comments supported the usefulness of the assignment. This paper will discuss the methods used, desired outcomes, students' experiences and the research results.