Using Technology to Teach Preservice Students about Locating Information in the Academic Library

Abstract

Students from five educational foundations classes were tested using an identical pretest and posttest which contained questions designed to ascertain their knowledge and skill in utilizing library technology to obtain research information. The purpose of the study was to determine if the present bibliographic instruction methods used by instructor librarians in the library's computer classroom were effective by using the t-test to determine the results of the mean difference between the pretest and posttest scores of those students who attended the bibliographic instruction session and those who did not attend.Library instruction programs in academic libraries have continued to evolve and develop rapidly over the last several years primarily because of the progress in the creation of new electronic technology. The computer has become a medium of knowledge transfer; a calculating device has become a communicating device and adapting to the new environment will require challenging old assumptions [1]. Most academic libraries have discarded their card catalogs in favor of the online automated catalogs (OPAC) which can retrieve information about materials in the library collection thoroughly and quickly. The online catalog can retrieve information about books and journals articles for students involved in research projects usually in a matter of seconds. Citations of journal articles and in some instances even full-text journal articles can be accessed online not only 133