Experts in science communication were asked to identify the essential elements of a science communication course for post-graduate students. A Delphi methodology provided a framework for a research design that accessed their opinions and allowed them to contribute to, reflect on and identify 10 essential elements. There was a high level of…

The Association of College and Research Libraries recommends incorporating information literacy (IL) skills across university and college curricula, for the goal of developing information literate graduates. Congruent with this goal, the Departments of Biological Sciences and Information Science developed an integrated IL and scientific literacy…

In 2002, 45 percent of American adults had used the Internet to search for health information. However, according to a 2009 report, the number had increased to 71 percent of adults ages thirty to forty-nine and 46 percent of those 50 and older who had sought health information online. While the number of adults using the Internet to search for…

It is important that students understand the "open-ended" nature of scientific knowledge and the correct relationship between facts and theory. One way this can be taught is to examine a past controversy in which the interpretation of facts was contested. The controversy discussed here, with suggestions for teaching, is "Expanding…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to develop a system for automatic extraction of metadata from scientific papers in PDF format for the information system for monitoring the scientific research activity of the University of Novi Sad (CRIS UNS). Design/methodology/approach: The system is based on machine learning and performs automatic extraction…

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) is a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture initiated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO. Through local, national and international events, the organization wants to help the citizens of the world connect with the universe through the day…

The study aims to explore the professional activities, needed competencies and education/training needs of medical librarians in Pakistan. The following questions guided the study: what are the current professional activities of medical librarians in Pakistan? What is their perception of the competencies needed of medical librarians? And what are…

Increasing demand for biotechnology and biomedical resources prompted the Engineering Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB) to complete a collection assessment of the journals, books, and other resources provided by the University Libraries. This paper presents a variety of methods for evaluating library collections and describes…

This case study describes an information literacy lab for an undergraduate biology course that leads students through a range of resources to discover aspects of genetic information. The lab provides over 560 students per semester with the opportunity for hands-on exploration of resources in steps that simulate the pathways of higher-level…

As is the case with other fields, there is motivation for studying the impact that the body of evaluation theory literature has within and outside the field. The authors used journal articles written by theorists included on the evaluation theory tree by Alkin and Christie (2004; Christie & Alkin, 2008) and published in the Web of Science, an…

The National Drug Sector Information Service is committed to supporting those who work to prevent or reduce the harm to individuals, families, communities and the nation caused by alcohol and other drugs. This paper describes a project to assist particular members of the alcohol and other drugs sector to improve quality and the transfer of…

As technology and teaching requirements continue to evolve, one would think the choice of which data projector to buy would be easier because there now are more products with more capabilities. Yet just the opposite is true: The sheer number of projectors and myriad combinations of available features can be overwhelming, making it really tough to…

The "cyberinfrastucture" is a broad informational network that entails connections to real-time data sensors as well as tools that permit visualization and other forms of analysis, and that facilitates access to vast scientific databases. This multifaceted network, already a major boon to scientific discovery, now shows exceptional promise in…

This exploratory study reports on what engineering undergraduate students know and would like to learn about engineering information sources and access. Responses were obtained on selected performance measures within the framework of "Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology" (ACRL/ALA/STS 2006). The results are based…

Many web 2.0 sites are extremely popular and contain vast amounts of content, but how much of this content is useful in academia? This exploratory paper investigates the potential use of the popular web 2.0 image site Flickr as an academic image resource. The study identified images tagged with any one of 12 subject names derived from recognized…