Despite easy access to expert resources and extensive in-school modeling, students--even the youngest--are relying heavily upon "Wikipedia," especially when they do research away from school. With "Wikipedia" holding steady as one of the top ten Web sites worldwide, it is no wonder students are flocking there. For teachers, parents, and students,…

A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent…

School media specialists hold the key to ensuring successful research projects that bring the world, and its vast amount of information, into a manageable perspective. More than ever, professionals in school libraries have the responsibility of guiding students to become information literate citizens in this new century. An important contribution…

In the last issue, this journal asked a question on many librarians' minds, and it was pleased with the depth and variety of responses. As suggested by this journal editorial board member Oliver Pesch, readers were asked, "Many libraries have gone to federated searching to win users back from Google. Is it working?" Respondents approached the…

Using data collected from 583 bibliographies from student research papers, this study analyzes the effect that the class year of the student, the academic discipline of the course, and the level of the course have on the type and the mean number of sources cited by undergraduates. All three variables had some significant effects on student…

This study examines undergraduate students' research habits in a strictly electronic library environment at a large public university. Unlike most information commons, the campus' electronic library is not housed within a traditional library space and provides access to electronic research materials exclusively. This study finds that undergraduate…

Studies suggest that course-integrated information literacy instruction is an effective way to enhance the quality of student research. However, many political science professors are unfamiliar with the growing information literacy movement in higher education today, with strategies for integrating information literacy into their courses and…

Presents a format for an organized research procedure. Three information source sheets for keeping track of research materials--encyclopedias, books, and other sources such as periodicals, newspapers, and interviews--progress to greater levels of detail and are designed for use by grade 2, grades 3-6, and grade 8. (MES)

In school library research programs, a challenge for students doing research emerges when they take their projects home and turn to their parents for assistance. Often parents lack sufficient knowledge of the research process to be able to effectively help their children. Moreover, teachers expect parents to monitor student homework but rarely…

Middle-level teachers, librarians, and media specialists can use this book to meet current English language arts and technology standards and to prepare students to be literate citizens in the 21st century. Additional teaching tools include timelines of classroom events, reproducible rubrics for assessing curriculum units, suggested Web resources,…

Coming up with interesting information literacy lessons can be challenging for the high school librarian. If school librarians have taught their upper class students well, most are prepared to navigate their way successfully through libraries and Internet resources. In this article, the author explores a unique high school project that resulted in…

This column is a collaborative effort by library media specialists who write about the motivational strategies that have worked for them. Motivational strategies include ways to gain and sustain attention, increase relevance for learning information literacy skills, build confidence in students' developing research abilities, and promote a…

This column is a collaborative effort by library media specialists and K-16 educators who write about the motivational strategies that have worked for them in teaching information literacy (IL) skills. Motivational strategies include ways to gain and sustain attention, increase relevance for learning IL skills, build confidence in students'…

"Mental modeling" refers to a student's ability to visualize or comprehend the information research process. This article reviews 50 years of changing conceptions of how we learn: behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist perspective; describes the application of three "mental models" to interactive technology; and discusses…

Throughout students' academic careers, they are required to perform a variety of speech-related activities. According to one study, students with demonstrated communication anxiety are less successful academically. Both the instructor and the librarian can contribute to assisting the student with communication anxiety. Using a variety of…