Library Participates In Computing/Information Literacy Course

Familiarity with the information superhighway and its vast holdings of data is increasingly vital if a person is to have a competitive edge in today's society. Bearing this in mind, provost Richard Passon, Ph.D., announced in his June 14, 1994, Memo to the President, Trustees, Faculty and Academic Administrators the formation of a required course (or competency) in computing and information literacy. The Computing Sciences Department, in cooperation with the faculty librarians, will be piloting a model of such a course.

 

During the 1994 summer program, faculty librarians began participating in the CMPS 104 class by providing a lecture and lab on searching the Library's Online Public Catalog (OPC). Joe Fennewald, evening public services librarian, was the first librarian to deliver the lecture and lab: during the fall semester other faculty librarians, the assistant directors and the library director will have their turns at teaching. All lectures will provide information on searching techniques for the Online Public Catalog and will include direct hands-on experience by the students. One point emphasized is how to access the OPC from outside the Library. Handouts used were prepared by Katie Duke, bibliographic instruction coordinator, and Joe Fennewald has prepared the questions students must answer as they search the OPC. Both the handouts and the questions will be evaluated for inclusion in the workbooks used in these classes.

 

To date 15 CMPS 104 and CMPS 102 classes are scheduled for the fall semester. In the coming year, the Library and Computing Sciences Departments will continue their evaluation of the course content before presenting a proposal for a course on Information Literacy in which students will learn not only the computer skills needed to connect to various information systems throughout the Internet, but the evaluational skills necessary for effectively using these systems.