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 …