Uma cultura de colaboração entre professores e bibliotecários: a orientação tutorial de estudantes de radiologia em Moçambique

O sucesso da aquisição de competências de literacia da informação no ensino superior garante-se através do trabalho colaborativo entre bibliotecários e professores. Em janeiro de 2015, uma equipa composta por uma professora de radiologia, uma professora de estatística e uma bibliotecária deslocaram-se a Maputo, em Moçambique, para uma missão de capacitação de docentes em metodologias de investigação aplicadas à saúde e de orientação tutorial para estudantes de radiologia no Instituto Superior de Ciências de Saúde. As sessões de formação foram desenhadas com a preocupação de criar oportunidades reais de discussão e de aprofundamento de questões colocadas pelos formandos. Os resultados finais revelaram que os formandos gostariam de ter mais formação em softwares de estatística (SPSS), testes estatísticos, análise de dados qualitativos, técnicas de amostragem com mais exemplos práticos, plataformas de pesquisa de informação em saúde sobre radiologia, tecnologias de informação e comunicação, metodologia de investigação científica, como elaborar um protocolo de investigação e questionários, bem como mais informação sobre como citar e referenciar. Evidencia-se que a missão da Biblioteca deve ser alterada e alargada à comunidade académica, assumindo esta o seu papel no processo de tutoria na investigação.

A saúde fora de portas: o projeto de literacia da informação da ESTeSL

Introdução – A pesquisa de informação realizada pelos estudantes de ensino superior em recursos eletrónicos não corresponde necessariamente ao domínio de competências de pesquisa, análise, avaliação, seleção e bom uso da informação recuperada. O conceito de literacia da informação ganha pertinência e destaque, na medida em que abarca competências que permitem reconhecer quando é necessária a informação e de atuar de forma eficiente e efetiva na sua obtenção e utilização. Objetivo – A meta da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa (ESTeSL) foi a formação em competências de literacia da informação, fora da ESTeSL, de estudantes, professores e investigadores. Métodos – A formação foi integrada em projetos nacionais e internacionais, dependendo dos públicos-alvo, das temáticas, dos conteúdos, da carga horária e da solicitação da instituição parceira. A Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian foi o promotor financeiro privilegiado. Resultados – Decorreram várias intervenções em território nacional e internacional. Em 2010, em Angola, no Instituto Médio de Saúde do Bengo, formação de 10 bibliotecários sobre a construção e a gestão de uma biblioteca de saúde e introdução à literacia da informação (35h). Em 2014, decorrente do ERASMUS Intensive Programme, o OPTIMAX (Radiation Dose and Image Quality Optimisation in Medical Imaging) para 40 professores e estudantes de radiologia (oriundos de Portugal, Reino Unido, Noruega, Países Baixos e Suíça) sobre metodologia e pesquisa de informação na MEDLINE e na Web of Science e sobre o Mendeley, enquanto gestor de referências (4h). Os trabalhos finais deste curso foram publicados em formato de ebook (http://usir.salford.ac.uk/34439/1/Final%20complete%20version.pdf), cuja revisão editorial foi da responsabilidade dos bibliotecários. Ao longo de 2014, na Escola Superior de Educação, Escola Superior de Dança, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal e Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa e, ao longo de 2015, na Universidade Aberta, Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, Instituto Egas Moniz, Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa e Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa foram desenhados conteúdos sobre o uso do ZOTERO e do Mendeley para a gestão de referências bibliográficas e sobre uma nova forma de fazer investigação. Cada uma destas sessões (2,5h) envolveu cerca de 25 estudantes finalistas, mestrandos e professores. Em 2015, em Moçambique, no Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde, decorreu a formação de 5 bibliotecários e 46 estudantes e professores (70h). Os conteúdos ministrados foram: 1) gestão e organização de uma biblioteca de saúde (para bibliotecários); 2) literacia da informação: pesquisa de informação na MEDLINE, SciELO e RCAAP, gestores de referências e como evitar o plágio (para bibliotecários e estudantes finalistas de radiologia). A carga horária destinada aos estudantes incluiu a tutoria das monografias de licenciatura, em colaboração com mais duas professoras do projeto. Para 2016 está agendada formação noutras instituições de ensino superior nacionais. Perspetiva-se, ainda, formação similar em Timor-Leste, cujos conteúdos, datas e carga horária estão por agendar. Conclusões – Destas iniciativas beneficia a instituição (pela visibilidade), os bibliotecários (pelo evidenciar de competências) e os estudantes, professores e investigadores (pelo ganho de novas competências e pela autonomia adquirida). O projeto de literacia da informação da ESTeSL tem contribuído de forma efetiva para a construção e para a produção de conhecimento no meio académico, nacional e internacional, sendo a biblioteca o parceiro privilegiado nesta cultura de colaboração.

Drop-In Clinics for Environmental Studies Students

The delivery of library instruction to students in those areas of the sciences and the social sciences dealing with biology and the environment has a long history (Bowden & Di Benedetto 2001; Kutner 2000; Kutner & Danks 2007; Sapp 2006; Sinn 1998). Often these instruction sessions take the form of a one hour lecture or workshop at the start of a semester before the students have begun their projects or papers. This "one-shot" approach, though popular, has its limitations. It may not be offered at a time when the students will actually start making use of library resources, it may not be tied very specifically to a particular assignment, or it may be too general in nature to be of much use to students later on when they need to look at particular topics in much more depth than can be addressed in one such session. The following article describes another approach: the strategic use of drop-in clinics as a method of instruction in which the students themselves determine how the instruction proceeds.

Collaborative information behaviour : a case study of two research groups

The aim of the licentiate thesis is to examine researchers' information practices in research groups. The researchers were involved with study communication and media related issues within Social Sciences and Humanities Faculties. The theoretical framework of the study comprises the new holistic models of information seeking (for example: Meho and Tibbo, 2003; Seldén, 1999) and the collective aspects of information behaviour (Prekop, 2002 ; Talja, 2002; Talja and Hansen, 2006). The research questions are: 1. How do scholars seek information in research groups? 2 What kind of collaborative information behaviour occurs in the research groups? The research data was gathered by interviews and observations. Three meetings of a research group at the University of Tampere were observed during the autumn of 2004. The group members and the group leader of the research group were interviewed in the spring of 2005. The research group members and the group leader of a research group at the University of Jyväskylä were interviewed in the autumn of 2005. Altogether, two research group leaders and eight researchers were interviewed. The significance of the research group for information seeking is more important in closeknit research groups than in rather loose research groups. The significance of the research group for information seeking can be at least threefold. First, research group members can inform the group about relevant information resources and potential library or other information services. Second, the research group can to some extent compensate for the information seeking systems of libraries by distributing material and information resources. Third, information seeking can be carried out in collaboration in research groups. The significance of the research group was found to be most important in informing about new information services and marketing library systems. Recommendations from colleagues were often needed to mobilize researchers into using new library services. The significance of colleagues in informing about library services is in line with earlier studies. The present study showed that sometimes information from colleagues was regarded as more important than information distributed directly by the local library. A culture of information sharing, including mutual trust, seemed mainly to be reflected in collaboration and collaborative information seeking in the research groups studied. The timing of the onset of individual research seemed to be related to the information sharing culture and social networks in research groups. The simultaneous onset of the research work by group members seemed to promote the growth of unbiased collaboration, also in information seeking.

Re-engineering and Re-defining University Libraries in the context of modern Information and Communication Technologies: a study with special reference to the University Libraries in Kerala

Information and communication technologies are the tools that underpin the emerging “Knowledge Society”. Exchange of information or knowledge between people and through networks of people has always taken place. But the ICT has radically changed the magnitude of this exchange, and thus factors such as timeliness of information and information dissemination patterns have become more important than ever.Since information and knowledge are so vital for the all round human development, libraries and institutions that manage these resources are indeed invaluable. So, the Library and Information Centres have a key role in the acquisition, processing, preservation and dissemination of information and knowledge. ln the modern context, library is providing service based on different types of documents such as manuscripts, printed, digital, etc. At the same time, acquisition, access, process, service etc. of these resources have become complicated now than ever before. The lCT made instrumental to extend libraries beyond the physical walls of a building and providing assistance in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools. Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being re-defined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources.The research was conducted in the university libraries in Kerala State, India. lt was identified that even though the information resources are flooding world over and several technologies have emerged to manage the situation for providing effective services to its clientele, most of the university libraries in Kerala were unable to exploit these technologies at maximum level. Though the libraries have automated many of their functions, wide gap prevails between the possible services and provided services. There are many good examples world over in the application of lCTs in libraries for the maximization of services and many such libraries have adopted the principles of reengineering and re-defining as a management strategy. Hence this study was targeted to look into how effectively adopted the modern lCTs in our libraries for maximizing the efficiency of operations and services and whether the principles of re-engineering and- redefining can be applied towards this.Data‘ was collected from library users, viz; student as well as faculty users; library ,professionals and university librarians, using structured questionnaires. This has been .supplemented by-observation of working of the libraries, discussions and interviews with the different types of users and staff, review of literature, etc. Personal observation of the organization set up, management practices, functions, facilities, resources, utilization of information resources and facilities by the users, etc. of the university libraries in Kerala have been made. Statistical techniques like percentage, mean, weighted mean, standard deviation, correlation, trend analysis, etc. have been used to analyse data.All the libraries could exploit only a very few possibilities of modern lCTs and hence they could not achieve effective Universal Bibliographic Control and desired efficiency and effectiveness in services. Because of this, the users as well as professionals are dissatisfied. Functional effectiveness in acquisition, access and process of information resources in various formats, development and maintenance of OPAC and WebOPAC, digital document delivery to remote users, Web based clearing of library counter services and resources, development of full-text databases, digital libraries and institutional repositories, consortia based operations for e-journals and databases, user education and information literacy, professional development with stress on lCTs, network administration and website maintenance, marketing of information, etc. are major areas need special attention to improve the situation. Finance, knowledge level on ICTs among library staff, professional dynamism and leadership, vision and support of the administrators and policy makers, prevailing educational set up and social environment in the state, etc. are some of the major hurdles in reaping the maximum possibilities of lCTs by the university libraries in Kerala. The principles of Business Process Re-engineering are found suitable to effectively apply to re-structure and redefine the operations and service system of the libraries. Most of the conventional departments or divisions prevailing in the university libraries were functioning as watertight compartments and their existing management system was more rigid to adopt the principles of change management. Hence, a thorough re-structuring of the divisions was indicated. Consortia based activities and pooling and sharing of information resources was advocated to meet the varied needs of the users in the main campuses and off campuses of the universities, affiliated colleges and remote stations. A uniform staff policy similar to that prevailing in CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, etc. has been proposed by the study not only in the university libraries in kerala but for the entire country.Restructuring of Lis education,integrated and Planned development of school,college,research and public library systems,etc.were also justified for reaping maximum benefits of the modern ICTs.

“Flipped Classroom” for Teaching Business Research in a Business Management Course

This presentation will report on a cross-department collaboration between the library and the business/economics department at Lehman College to conduct information literacy instruction as a “flipped classroom.”

Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries - Session 3. RISD Faculty

Faculty from Rhode Island School of Design representing Interior Architecture, Industrial Design, and Textiles detail their thoughtful interactions with materials.

Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries - Session 4. Designers

Designers respond to issues and synthesize ideas from throughout the day as voices from the field who directly encounter the need for recently graduated students to possess the ability to investigate and interrogate materials.

Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries - Session 2. Educators

Educators representing interactions with materials speak to critical approaches, life-cycle concerns, critical thinking of composition/process/properties.

Reliability of Web-Based Information in Inquiry Projects

This case study aims at identifying how a community of secondary school students selects web-based information and factors associated with the reliability of online reference sources during their collaborative inquiry (co-inquiry) projects. This study, conducted in a public secondary school in Brazil, focused on information literacy skills for collaborative open learning (colearning). The research is based on qualitative content analysis implemented on the online platform weSPOT. Although students are mindful of the importance of comparing different sources of information they seem not to be aware of reliability in online environments. Teacher's guidance is essential to support co-learners in developing competences, particularly related to critical thinking.