Understanding the connections between scientific inquiry and digital literacy in informal learning environments is essential to furthering students' critical thinking and technology skills. The Habitat Tracker project combines a standards-based curriculum focused on the nature of science with an integrated system of online and mobile computing technologies designed to help students learn about and participate in scientific inquiry in formal classroom settings and informal learning environments such as science museums or wildlife centers. This research documents the digital literacy skills elementary students used while participating in the Habitat Tracker project, exploring the connections between the scientific inquiry practices they developed and the digital literacy skills they employed as they engaged with the Habitat Tracker curriculum. The results of this research have implications for researchers and practitioners interested in fostering both the scientific inquiry practices and digital literacy skills of elementary students in formal and informal learning environments.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), organizational sustainability requires social equity, and serving diverse populations is mandated in the ALA Library Bill of Rights and its Policy Manual on Diversity. Preparation to serve diverse and marginalized populations is a key ingredient in creating the type of resilient leaders needed to promote and sustain systematic and lasting changes in LIS. Although the field promotes services to diverse populations through recruitment and retention of librarians, staff, faculty, and students from diverse backgrounds, there is still much work to do, and LIS programs must support students in obtaining the knowledge and skills they will need to develop inclusive library collections, services, and programs that reflect diverse patrons’ lives and needs and understanding of the experiences of people whose lived experience differs from their own. This study analyzed courses that prepare students in North American ALA-accredited Master’s of Library and Information Science (MLIS) programs to serve diverse populations. All programs’ websites were examined to identify relevant courses, and 28 syllabi were analyzed for the study. The researchers employed descriptive statistics and content analysis to describe course offerings and identify course topics through themes emerging from the syllabi. Overall, the study found that course offerings and rotations vary considerably across programs and that the courses focus on how information organizations serve diverse users’ information needs in the context of access, equity, and diversity and professionalism in LIS. The findings from this study add to previous research on this topic and provide data that can inform MLIS curriculum development.

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Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation into the effectiveness of teaching research methods in library and information studies. A review of the literature revealed that the Library and Information Science (LIS) community is engaged in a continuing debate about the most effective means for teaching research methods courses in master's-level LIS programs. Many LIS master's students enter their programs lacking backgrounds in social science research and many students exhibit skepticism about the need for LIS practitioners to understand and engage in research. The small research project described in this paper was designed to contribute to this discussion by exploring how several different iterations of the final project implemented in a research methods course at the University of Rhode Island's (URI) LIS program contributed to student retention of learning outcomes after completing the course and the graduates' views of research and their engagement with research as practitioners. The authors developed a survey consisting of 20 closed-ended questions in single and matrix formats, covering three categories: respondents' experience with the course, their current use of research, and their opinion of research. The findings show promise for further research in the pedagogy of LIS research methods courses. Respondents demonstrated achievement and retention of course learning objectives and a generally positive attitude toward research.