A Chemical Information Literacy Program for First-Year Students

Abstract

The ability to navigate and understand the chemical literature is integral to the scientific research process. Learning these skills is therefore an important, though often overwhelming, part of an undergraduate chemical education. We describe an inquiry-based program designed to help chemistry students begin to learn to search and read the literature. The semester-long program is used within an honors general chemistry course but could be used during recitation sections of a larger general chemistry lecture course. It involves classroom and library tutorials and activities that introduce students to the skills necessary for utilizing today’s databases, online journals, and library resources. Over its 5-year existence, the program has been molded by student assessment, faculty feedback, and new developments in the field. The collaboration between and support by the chemistry and biochemistry department and the library were crucial to the success of the program. The program materials provided could easily be adapted to an online program or larger class with recitation sections.

A Scientometric Study of Digital Literacy, ICT Literacy, Information Literacy, and Media Literacy

“…Primarily, there were studies on learning outcomes and skills for digital literacy of the digital native who grew with using digital technology in their daily life . Other studies presented educational programs for students in chemistry to master their literature searching skills (Gawalt & Adams, 2011; and definition of media literacy, information literacy, and digital literacy .…”

Building Data and Information Literacy in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum

“…Some instructional strategies have focused primarily on tool use and proficiency, such as the effective use of SciFinder, Scopus or patent databases (12,16,22,30,41,49). These articles are helpful resources to learn more about exercise design and the impact of scientific literature instruction with respect to student performance.…”

A Pragmatic and Flexible Approach to Information Literacy: Findings from a Three-Year Study of Faculty-Librarian Collaboration

“…Recognition of IL as a core competency can now be found in a number of departments and in a number of disciplines (Kuglitsch, 2015;Weiner, 2014), including history and art history (Cassidy & Hendrickson, 2013;Garland, 2014;Gendron & Sclippa, 2014;Porras-Hein & Miller, 2004;Hicks & Howkins, 2015), political science (Cavdar & Doe, 2012;Bob, 2001;Fitzgerald & Baird, 2001;Gilbert, Knutson, & Gilbert, 2012;Marfleet & Dille, 2005;Stevens & Campbell, 2008;Williams, Goodson, & Howard, 2006;Williams & Evans, 2008), psychology (Dold, 2014;Lampert, 2005), and sociology (Dodgen, Naper, Palmer, & Rapp, 2003;Caravello, Kain, Kuchi, Macicak, & Weiss, 2008;Proctor, Wartho, & Anderson, 2005). IL is also now a common goal of first-year programs at large public universities, community colleges, and private liberal arts institutions (Fain, 2011;Gawalt & Adams, 2011;Gross & Latham, 2011;Karshmer & Bryan, 2011;Kim & Schumaker, 2015;Manus, 2009;Moore, Black, Glackin, Ruppel, & Watson, 2015;Rinto & Cogbill-Seiders, 2015;Samson & Graneth, 2004;Wilkes, Godwin, & Gurney, 2015).…”