Information Literacy @ Purdue

Poster Session about the Scholarship of Science Professors

Each Spring, Jeremy Garritano teaches Chemistry 513: Chemical Information Sources. Garritano is an Associate Professor of Library Science here at Purdue, and in his role as Chemical Information Specialist at the MG Mellon Library of Chemistry he works as liaison between the library and the Chemistry department, teaching this undergraduate seminar. In it, he helps provide important information literacy training and instruction through a mix of largely “hands on,” in-class activities and some lecturing.

Guiding the students through a combination of team-based activities and his own knowledge and expertise, Garritano frames students’ classroom experience to effectively cultivate students’ understanding and practice of productive research skills within the sciences. He endeavors to lead students beyond some of the default approaches to searching for information–e.g., beyond mere keyword searches in Google or Wikipedia. Of course, he does not disparage the initial impulses students have toward these popular tools. Instead, he stresses their value and treats them as an important foundation on which to build in order to facilitate more efficient and sophisticated methods of research (such as numerical property searching and image-based chemical compound and reaction searches) and to encourage using available databases for research (such as SciFinder and Reaxys).

In addition to learning about such practices and sources for chemistry research, students develop more nuanced understandings of the primary and secondary research sources available to them. They move beyond the encyclopedic entries available to them through sources like Wikipedia, to learning how to incorporate patents and peer-reviewed articles into their work.

The course culminates in a final project: a team of about three students collaborate to investigate the scholarship of Purdue science professors and finally develop a poster based on their findings. At the end of the semester, these posters are put on display and Purdue  faculty and graduate students are invited to their showing.

Faculty and staff working with the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research (JPUR) provided a workshop for students developing paper proposals to submit to the journal. The event was kicked off by Greg Michalski, the Chair of the Faculty Advisory Board for JPUR and Professor in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Chemistry Department. Prof. Michalski discussed the impetus for JPUR that developed out of his own experiences publishing journal articles with undergraduate researchers.

Catherine Fraser Riehle, Assistant Professor in the Libraries, walked the group through developing a quality paper proposal and abstract. The students attendees were very engaged, many of whom plan to submit a paper proposal to JPUR for consideration of inclusion of the fall 2012 issue. Other students attended to learn more about the process with a plan to submit a proposal in the future covering research that is currently underway or about to begin. The event closed with Charles Watkinson, Director of the Purdue University Press, talking about the far reach that JPUR has achieved through its online presence. More information about JPUR or the submission process can be found on the JPUR website.

As part of the Information Literacy Symposium series directed by Dr. Sharon Weiner, Dr. Paulette Kerr gave a lecture and workshop at Purdue on Friday, November 11, 2011. Both the morning and afternoon sessions were quite intriguing, as Dr. Kerr shared the findings from her doctoral research into espoused and practiced theories that inform information literacy programs at academic institutions.

In the morning, Dr. Kerr described the doctoral research she conducted as a Rutgers’ student that examined 11 academic libraries in the United States using theories of action (Argyris & Schon, 1974).  This enabled Kerr to compare theories espoused in institutional and library documents (mission statements, strategic plans, etc.) to the theories of use inherent in information literacy tutorials provided by academic libraries. The comparison revealed gaps between information literacy goals and outcomes that were espoused and those that were practiced via the tutorials. In general, documents portraying espoused theories referred more to “learning,”  where as tutorials focused more on information access.  Critical thinking was represented in the tutorials through source evaluation, and information use was often limited to instruction related to “ethical use.”

In the afternoon, participants moved to the LearnLab in the Management and Economics Library (MEL). In this session participants were asked to apply applied what they learned in the morning lecture to documents and learning objects from their institutions. The 42 participants, librarians from Purdue and several other academic institutions, began to identify how information literacy was represented in their institutional documents.

Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This course (SCI 360) teaches students about key societal issues, such as energy, climate change, water, and food, while simultaneously developing students’ information retrieval, evaluation, and application skills.

Drawing together several innovative pedagogic approaches, students in the class experience an intensive semester of weekly writing assignments, small group “think tank” exercises, peer review of each others’ work, and visits with guest experts. Each small group submitted final projects consisting of a white paper, which discussed a problem and proposed a solution, as well as supplemental video recommending solutions to the great issues discussed throughout the semester.

The joint content and information literacy foci are reflected in the five learning objectives for the course:

1. Students will apply relevant models, such as Tragedy of the Commons, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Common Pooled Resources, and Life cycle Analysis to understand and analyze Great issues.

2. Students will be able to discuss the main social and scientific issues surrounding sustainability of Earth’s resources, such as energy, food, water, population, and climate.

3. Students will be able to critically evaluate its validity and applicability, and integrate it into their previous knowledge of a topic.

4. Students will use statistics, data, and information accurately and ethically to analyze Great Issues.

5. Students will be able to work effectively in teams.

Example Assignment: Students read two articles that offered differing opinions on climate change, and then were asked to consider and discuss what further information they would need to come to their own conclusion on the issue.

Collaboratively designed by Michael Fosmire and Jane Yatcilla, Associate Professors of Library Science, and Physics Professor Andrew Hirsch, this 3-credit course has been co-taught by faculty in the Libraries and from the College of Science since Spring 2009.