Stewart Brower

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education: Implications for Health Sciences Librarianship

The Association of College and Research Libraries is developing a new framework of information literacy concepts that will revise and replace the previously adopted standards. This framework consists of six threshold concepts that are more flexible than the original standards, and that work to identify both the function and the feelings behind information literacy education practices. This column outlines the new tentative framework with an eye toward its implications for health sciences libraries, and suggests ways the medical library community might work with this new document.

Teaching E-journals: Building a Workshop for an Academic Health Sciences Library

Abstract Prompted by survey results from users of the University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library, the Coordinator of Information Management Education created a workshop about electronic journals (e-journals). Common reference questions regarding accessing and using e-journals led to the development of specific course objectives. The workshop focused on the commonly held myths surrounding e-journals, and the recommended methods for accessing journals through the University at Buffalo Libraries. This article details the process of building the workshop and suggests reasons and methods for implementing similar instructional opportunities in other libraries. Serials Review 2002; 28:88–92.

Medical Education and Information Literacy in the Era of Open Access

The Open Access movement in scholarly communications poses new issues and concerns for medical education in general and information literacy education specifically. For medical educators, Open Access can affect the availability of new information, instructional materials, and scholarship in medical education. For students, Open Access materials continue to be available to them post-graduation, regardless of affiliation. Libraries and information literacy librarians are challenged in their responses to the Open Access publishing movement in how best to support Open Access endeavors within their own institutions, and how best to educate their user base about Open Access in general.

Morningcrest Health Library: A Clinic-Based Approach to Health Information Literacy Services

Recently, the Schusterman Library at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa opened a satellite library in the out-patient clinic on campus. This article describes how the new library came into being and the role it is expected to play in patient education and consumer health outreach.

Communications in Information Literacy: An Example of Librarians as Publishers

Seeing a clear need for a scholarly journal devoted entirely to information literacy, two librarians developed a plan for the creation of Communications in Information Literacy. Putting this plan into action required writing author guidelines, recruiting an editorial board, installing open source journal publishing software, creating a workable business model, and petitioning bibliographic databases for indexing. The process described in this column can serve as a model for other, similar efforts.

Millennials in action: a student-guided effort in curriculum-integration of library skills.

Library literature reveals that surveys published over a span of five years in prominent library and information science journals have an average response rate of 63%. This article describes a strategy that LIS researchers can use to deal with the problem of nonresponse. The author recommends three main methodological objectives to improve response rates: (1) establishing the respondent’s trust, (2) increasing the expected rewards of participation, and (3) reducing the social costs of participation. Specifics include pre-notification, personalized cover letters, the use of reminders, incentives for participation, and stamped, self-addressed envelopes for the return of surveys. Methods for correcting for sampling bias are also discussed.

Teaching Electronic journals: Finding, using, and citing them

SUMMARY Todays library users are Web savvy but not always Web educated. As more and more of a librarys print journal collection becomes part of the librarys electronic collection, we must take on the roles of guiding and teaching students how to navigate and learn from their interactions with electronic journals. The Teaching Electronic Journals workshop discussed the opportunities we have to educate our users about electronic journals and how to use and cite them effectively.