Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Do Professional Engineers Use Information Compared To Undergraduates, And How Can Libraries Prepare Students And Support Engineers For Future Success?, Margaret Phillips, Michael Fosmire, Kristin Petersheim, Laura Turner, Jing Lu

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Librarians at Purdue University seek to develop engineering graduates who are effective information users. Similarly, information specialists at Caterpillar Inc. are concerned with how well new hires are prepared for the information landscape at work as practicing engineers. Librarians from Purdue University and Caterpillar partnered to create and disseminate a survey to compare how students and practicing engineers seek and use information in the research process. Within a framework that asked survey participants to think about information use in a recently completed project, responses highlighted several gaps in information literacy training, including the use of external standards and internal document …

Inspiring Innovation With Patent Information Literacy In The Engineering Technology Curriculum, Dave Zwicky, Margaret Phillips

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Patents have wide appeal to students, faculty, and employers and can be a potent tool for integrating information literacy (IL) into engineering and technology curricula. There is evidence to show that students use patents to assess the patentability of their design ideas, explore the state of the art in a given area of technology, and to inspire creativity in their work. Faculty use patents and other complementary forms of gray literature to go beyond the traditional IL world of scholarly literature and engage students with information problems that reflect real-world design challenges. Working with patents allows students to develop strategic, …

Standards Are Everywhere: A Freely Available Introductory Online Educational Program On Standardization For Product Development, Margaret Phillips, Michael Fosmire, Paul B Mcpherson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The collaboration between the Purdue Libraries and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute on standards education goes back to the 1980’s.[i] With a shared goal of preparing students for success after graduation, the Libraries and (then) Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) devised activities and instruction to show students that they will need to be able to find information ‘beyond the textbook’ to solve the problems they will face in the workplace. They will need specific information that relates to their particular circumstance, whether it is a material property, production technique, or an industry standard.

In recent years, the Libraries and Polytechnic …

Effective Methods Of Engineering Information Literacy: Initial Steps Of A Systematic Literature Review And Observations About The Literature, Margaret Phillips, Amy Van Epps, Nastasha Johnson, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Background – There is a body of information literacy (IL) literature applied to undergraduate engineering students, much of which discusses different methods for teaching, such as classes/one-shots, online tutorials, gaming, and other interventions. It is important for librarians to know which methods of teaching engineering information literacy (EIL) are most effective for student learning, in order to make efficient and effective use of student and librarian time.

Purpose/Hypothesis – The authors reviewed the existing literature to find indications of the most effective methods for teaching and/or integrating EIL, both in face-to-face and online instruction.

Design/Method – The authors have completed …

Information Literacy In Engineering Technology Education: A Case Study, Margaret Phillips, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information literacy is a vital component of engineering and engineering technology programs, as evidenced by its alignment with the engineering design process, and as required by ABET, the body that accredits all engineering and many engineering technology undergraduate programs. However, information literacy in engineering technology and applied engineering curricula is understudied when compared with information literacy in engineering programs. This paper describes a case study of information literacy integration into an undergraduate mechanical engineering technology design course, with a focus on patent information and patent searching. Online pre- and post-assessment data for four semesters were analyzed, showing improvements in student …