Learning/ Instruction Management

The participation of engineering librarians in information literacy takes many different forms. The ideal one is to have a programme that is part of the curricula because information literacy requires sustained development throughout all levels of the programme training. Achieving information literacy requires engineering students to have had a cumulative experience in most, if not all, subjects in addition to learning experiences. Information literacy should be woven into the content, structure and sequence of the curricula. Information literacy cannot be the product of a single course (Bundy, 2004), therefore lecturer-librarian collaboration is crucial. Engineering librarians should consider participating in a teaching course or recognized qualification to be part of the faculty’s information literacy endeavor.

F.1 Starting the program.

Engineering students need to experience, reflect and apply information literacy at all levels of their studies through the programme. However, this is not always the case, especially at the beginning of the IL programme. Lecturers and librarians should avoid taking too long before IL is integrated into the course offerings. Below are guidelines on how to start and run an information literacy program/course (Bundy, 2004; Stripling, 1999).

  • A clear focus on an IL standard or standards for every IL engineering activity
  • Work on standards one by one if you cannot work on all standards at the same time
  • Get assistance from the Directorate of ICT if one needs to know how to create a course
  • Promote your IL activity well—by whatever means you may have
  • Work in teams—any activity can be done by more than one Engineering Librarian
  • Appoint a leader for all library IL efforts if possible
  • Remember that IL is not the solely domain of the library—there is need to collaborate with the different lecturers at the engineering faculty
  • Be clear about IL objectives with any type of activity 

F.2 Information literacy needs differ.

Engineering librarians and lecturers should be aware that needs differ from one student to another. Individuals and groups of students have very different competencies at the outset, and probably, more importantly, differing motivations regarding fulfilling needs and extending competencies. Mining engineering students or students from certain secondary school, or students who studied from a certain region, for example, may appear to be a homogeneous group with similar needs, skills and motivations. However, recent experience (particularly when widening participation is taken into account) contradicts this view of the homogeneous body of student populations. In teaching and learning terms, these factors are expressed as “presage” factors where individual students come to a learning situation with prior experiences, characteristics and conceptions of learning that, in turn, are affected by developmental factors and social factors as well as learning styles and approaches. Writers such as Biggs and Moore (1993) suggest that it is imperative that these are taken into account (Walton, personal communication, November, 2004).