The internet has given undergraduate students ever-increasing access to academic journals via search engines and online databases. However, students typically do not have the ability to use these journals effectively. This often poses a dilemma for instructors. The accelerated peer-review journal usage (APJU) technique provides a way for…

This article explores how online pathfinders can best meet the information needs of graduate students and foster advanced research. The article reviews the literature on pathfinders, including the historic characteristics of print pathfinders, and the recommendations that have emerged for online pathfinder content. The article explores the…

Physical access to information is only the first step. Gaining intellectual access to appropriate information is a challenge. Students have trouble using appropriate indexes, generating searching synonyms, and developing conceptual fluidity. They also need considerable assistance in evaluating and using information. (14 references) (MLH)

Plagiarism is not new, of course, but it is rampant now and is just one aspect of widespread "information illiteracy." Faculty in many disciplines have even given up on assigning research papers that require students to identify, locate, evaluate, and use research materials on their own. Instead, they simply have their students write papers based…

A freshman humanities course in reading and research was used by three English instructors to investigate the appropriateness of having students use an online database as a research tool. The results show that the acquisition of basic online database search skills is not qualitatively different from that of more traditional research skills.…

The trend toward teaching library users to design and execute their own database searches is examined, three methods of providing this instruction (course-integrated, classroom-based, and self-service) are described, and the librarian's role is discussed. (MSE)

Discusses the need to teach undergraduate students the critical thinking processes necessary to formulating and researching a topic, rather than the technicalities of online catalogs. The development and design of an online catalog at Dickinson College, which forces students to make informed choices throughout the search process, is described.…

Comments on the following research finding: teacher-librarians who understand the search process, work with classroom colleagues to integrate the process in instruction, and intervene early in student support, more effectively guarantee student success and academic achievement than those who don't. (PEN)

The interdisciplinary approach to the research process using information technology as implemented for sophomores at Stearns High School in Millinocket (Maine) integrates information skills and technology into biology and English curricula by helping students overcome obstacles encountered in the presearch or planning phase of the research…