A First-year Engineering Information Literacy Workshop to Increase Student Awareness of Research Databases

Abstract

is the Head of STEM and Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University. She also serves as liaison to the biology and bioengineering departments in addition to leading an interdisciplinary systematic reviews team. Previously, she worked as a STEM Librarian at Northeastern University and an Education Librarian at Boston University's Medical Campus.

A First Year Engineering Information Literacy Workshop: Redesigned for Remote Delivery

“…In the fall of 2018, a partnership was established between the first-year engineering program and the university library to develop a learning module to provide a high-level overview of a variety of library resources that would be useful in addressing the research requirements of the Cornerstone course [1]. The course project's open-ended design requires students to develop and properly formulate the problem before trying to develop solutions, and their first resource, of course, was Google.…”

“…In Fall 2019, eight of eleven total FYE instructors required students to attend the workshops (see Table 3 for additional details). In total, 501 students (62.5%) out of a possible 801 students in the FYE program participated in either an in-class session or library workshop, and the librarians taught a total of thirty-two workshops and six in-class sessions [1].…”

“…Over the last two years, Research & Instruction librarians at Northeastern University have collaborated with the First Year Engineering program to develop and refine an interactive workshop series designed to introduce new engineering students to key research resources and skills at the start of their degree programs, thus establishing a foundation in university-level engineering research [1].…”

“…Prior to the workshops, instructors noted limited use of citations and academic references in design reports and research presentations. The workshop teaches students how to conduct university-appropriate research, taking them beyond basic search engines [1].…”