Purdue University's Management and Economics Library Educates All Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Until recently, the user instruction program of Purdue University's Management and Economics (M&E) Library was concentrated almost completely in two areas: (1) first week student orientation sessions, and (2) occasional lectures to subject-specific courses. This approach was not completely unsuccessful, the library reached a total of more than 2,400 students campus-wide during the 1996-97 academic year. The orientation sessions, however, often presented problems. The students were given too much information before they were ready to use it, and the research strategies that were taught appeared to be forgotten by the time they were needed. Also, the subject-specific lectures during courses reached only a fraction of the entire student population that needed instruction. The spring 1997 semester brought about a significant change in this approach to teaching information research skills and familiarity with library resources to undergraduate students in Purdue's School of Management.