2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This study seeks to assess the impact of the current information literacy instruction program offered by the engineering librarian on freshmen engineering students’ abilities to critically evaluate and select credible and meaningful resources in their research and writing. Trends in library literature suggest that students often skip library resources in favor of more familiar search strategies used in their daily lives. However, there is significant, positive correlational evidence which suggests that using the library is closely associated with students’ academic performance and university retention. In order to determine if the local library intervention has an effect, this study includes multiple data sources that are used to examine students’ information literacy skills, comparing findings between those who have engaged with the library’s information literacy instruction program and those who have not. Currently, students voluntarily attend a library workshop and/or a peer-mentoring program that utilizes an online library assignment, each of which is focused on an end-of-semester research paper. This study uses data from four groups of students and analyzes the degree of success for the library interventions. The methods and data are presented for analysis. The findings from this study will be used to make improvements to the local information literacy curricula and to develop a replicable model for information literacy instruction that will promote student success and retention through graduation.