Self-directed and independent learning is an essential component of today‘s university curriculum and many libraries conduct information literacy workshops to equip the communities that they serve for this purpose. Changes in learning, research, information needs and the behaviour of users, as they interact with disruptive technology necessitate the continual development of information literacy modules that remain relevant and timely.
The Engineering Library (ENGL) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) regularly conducts information literacy workshops for students, staff and faculty from NTU‘s six Engineering schools. These library workshops have different tracks defined by NTU Library‘s Instructional Division (NTUL ISD) as Subject, Tools, Awareness and Research. The workshop modules can be generic such as Freshmen Orientation workshops, parallel such as Resource Discovery Final Year Project workshops that complement the course curriculum, or integrated such as Library Resources and Research workshops taken by research students. NTUL ISD develops, maintains and updates generic information literacy training modules for all groups of users. ENGL and NTUL ISD regularly collaborate to develop customised workshops for specific users and requirements. More importantly, Engineering librarians also collaborate with the faculty for course integrated or embedded information literacy workshops. Evaluation of the effectiveness of information literacy programs and the requirements of users are sought after each workshop through feedback forms from attendees and review discussions with faculty. Through continual improvement of these workshops, participants acquire the information literacy skills to learn effectively and efficiently in the ever-changing information environment. This poster will share some of these collaborations where the ENGL actively engage with faculty to develop information literacy instruction for the Engineering community.
Lena joined NTU Library in 2007 after working several years in the building construction and oil and gas industry. Her job in NTU Library involves collection development and liaison work for environmental engineering, research assistance desk support, conducting instruction classes, cataloguing of AV material and metadata management for NTU institutional repository collection.
Padmaja joined NTU Library in January 2006, prior to that she worked for many years in a computer peripherals manufacturing firm in India and in the Customer Support Helpdesk of a major computer manufacturer in Singapore. Her job in NTU Library involves collection development for the school of EEE, research assistance desk support, teaching instructional classes for engineering students, cataloguing of English monographs, subject cataloguing of theses and institutional repository items and acting as the institutional authority control liaison.
So I was chatting with Padmaja. Them Engineering librarians are working real hard. You are talking about 3 classes per librarian per day for 1-1.5 week. And this is only for the Tech Comm module. There are other programmes too. I especially like the workshop for the Mechanical Engineering course on Production Innovation course. They cover all sorts of business sources to get the students think about product ideas, patents, how to write a business plan. Lots of application stuff. Just love teaching application stuff – because students do stay attentive and engaged when we teach something that they can apply – they are Engineering students, for goodness’ sake.
Check this poster out. Lots of stuff. 10 librarians doing 106 workshops? Wow.