Enhancing Developmental Research Skills in the Undergraduate Curriculum

A Project Supported by an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is a federal agency created by the Museum and Library Services Act of 1996. Its purpose is to strengthen libraries and museums so as to foster innovation, leadership, and lifetime learning.

Libraries are on the cusp of change and researchers are faced with new resources and opportunities, but as the range of options expands, the skills needed to negotiate them increase in complexity. For the experienced researcher, adapting his or her research skills to these changes is a challenge; for the apprentice researcher, acquiring research skills in this changing environment is overwhelming. Our project has three components.

• Two summer institutes for librarians in the Minnesota colleges that are members of the Oberlin Group to prepare them to provide leadership across the campus in developing active learning techniques for students learning research skills in the hybrid print/electronic environment. The focus of the first institute will be on developing teaching strategies and collaborative relationships with faculty to enhance research as an essential part of the curriculum. The focus of the second institute will be on developing assessment measures for academic libraries that address student outcomes.
• A faculty development program that will involve two successive summer workshops for a pilot group of 30 faculty, 15 in each summer workshop, from across the disciplines so they can revise or develop courses that integrate developmental research experiences into the curriculum. The workshops will give faculty a chance to embed research instruction into the curriculum and will offer opportunities to explore ways to effectively teach research skills in a changing information environment. Follow up activities will engage these faculty in ongoing conversation as their courses are taught and evaluated.
• An assessment plan that uses information gathered from students and faculty in the program to generate practical solutions to problems, to help faculty and librarians develop new ways to assess student learning, and to develop new theory about how students learn in the hybrid print/electronic information environment.