Discipline-specific information literacy courses.

Abstract

Although not yet as prominent as general, for-credit information literacy courses, information literacy courses taught within particular disciplines are receiving increasing attention. The rationale for such courses is three-fold: (1) students often devote more attention to courses within their degree programs than to courses outside them, (2) the general abilities outlined in the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education may be minimally necessary but are not inherently sufficient for information literacy within a specific discipline, and (3) sometimes extensive course- and curriculum-integrated library instruction does not meet coherently students' needs. This article surveys disciplinary IL courses and discusses placement of these courses within the curriculum and academic term, credit hours and grade assignment for them, instructors for them, and courses' title and positioning for curricular approval.

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Much has recently been written about for-credit information literacy (IL) courses as electives or requirements within general education curricula or as electives outside degree programs. [1] The proliferation of literature on IL courses is hardly surprising, as 50 percent of respondents from four-year colleges and universities reported offering courses in a recent survey. [2] So established are courses as modes of library instruction that Spitzer, Eisenberg, and Lowe mention them along with online tutorials, workbooks, and course-related or -integrated instruction in their listing of various forms of IL instruction in higher education. [3] Not mentioned by Spitzer, Eisenberg, and Lowe, but also recently come into discussion, are IL courses offered within the context of disciplinary degree programs. Perhaps the two most notable general discussions of such courses are provided by List and Bell and Benedicto, [4] although descriptions of specific courses taught at particular institutions can be found in Geary, Hebert and Fitch, Herron and Griner, Kilman, Newby, Olmstadt and Hannigan, Ricker, Ridinger, and Wiggins. [5]

The rationale for offering IL courses within disciplinary contexts is three-fold. First, and pragmatically, students often devote more attention to courses within their degree programs than to general education courses. Second, while the general abilities outlined in the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education are minimally necessary for information literacy, they are not inherently sufficient for information literacy within a specific discipline. "Information literate" here has a usage like that of "literate": while people are often described in absolutes, as "literate" or "illiterate," what is really meant is that they can read and write in some specific language(s), not all languages. Similarly, someone who is fully information literate in chemistry is not automatically so within history. [6] Third, discipline-specific IL courses can also culminate trends toward increasingly course- and curriculum-integrated library instruction. Sometimes extensive, well-planned course- and curriculum-integrated library instruction is insufficient to meet students' needs coherently. Ricker describes such a situation at Oberlin College, where sequenced library instruction sessions within the chemistry curriculum were supplemented with a one-credit course. As Ricker suggests, "In reality, the sequence did not work for all students, who sometimes chose to take advanced organic chemistry classes without the analytic chemistry experience. ... We concluded that the time allotted for the traditional instruction session ... was inadequate, despite the irony of offering more sessions at different levels than had been provided in the past." [7]

This article provides a survey of disciplinary IL courses (see Appendix I) and discusses issues involved in establishing such courses. It is the outgrowth of research done by the author in designing or teaching credit-bearing, discipline-specific, IL courses to undergraduates and graduate students in three distinct fields (chemistry, education, and engineering) at two different institutions. In planning discipline-specific IL courses, general considerations include placement of the course within the curriculum and academic term, credit hours and grade assignment for the course, instructors for the course, and the course's title and positioning for curricular approval. Actual details of teaching and assessing such courses are beyond this article's scope, but information on these topics can be found in several resources cited herein.

The Course within the Curriculum and Academic Term

The question of who offers, or lists, a discipline-specific IL course is significant. Options include the library, an academic department, or multiple departments. Information Resources in Journalism at the University of Montana, Missoula, is listed through the library, as is Marine and Environmental Research: Information and Technology at the University of Oregon. Library Research/Information Skills for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the State University of New York, Binghamton is, conversely, listed through an academic department, as is Public Justice Information Sources at St. Mary's University. [8] Yet other courses are cross-listed between the library and other academic departments. Information Resources in the Life Sciences at Weber State University is thus cross-listed as Botany, Library Science, Microbiology, and Zoology 3340.

Who offers, or lists, the course is a decision driven by the library's place within the university, by concerns for marketing the course, and by the support structure necessary for course administration. Even where librarians are faculty, not all libraries function as course-offering units equivalent to academic departments. [9] IL courses listed by an academic department, rather than the library, may appeal more to students. As Boyce, Katz, and Mellon note, "Perhaps the greatest strength of placing the program within an academic department is its acceptance as a legitimate part of the university's curriculum." [10] Whoever lists the course--library or academic department--will be expected to have an administrative structure to distribute course rosters to faculty; conduct, tabulate, and archive teacher-course evaluations; authorize incompletes and changes of grades; and perform other bureaucratic functions related to course offerings. Academic departments inherently have structures for performing such functions, while the library may not--and may not view developing such structures, especially to support a single course offering, as efficient.

A discipline-specific IL course may be optional or required for a given major. [11] Heretofore, most discipline-specific IL courses have been electives. Only courses at specialized institutions or for graduate students are typically required; for example, the Hartt School of Music has required IL courses for undergraduates and graduate students, and Introduction to Library Research at Emory is required for incoming graduate students. [12] This is perhaps because students in such programs are highly committed to their disciplines and will do whatever it takes to earn credentials from the program. Most courses are optional within the major. The fact that most degree programs are already full of what faculty perceive as essential disciplinary content typically works to render discipline-specific courses electives rather than requirements. [13] It seems probable that elective IL courses within the major appeal more to students than elective IL courses outside the major, which have not always proven popular. [14] When the course is elective, care must be taken in scheduling it so as to avoid conflicts with courses required of all majors. [15] An interesting variation on the optional/required IL course within a disciplinary context was articulated a few years ago by Carla List of the State University of New York, Plattsburg, which allowed students to fulfill a general, one-credit, IL requirement by taking specific sections of the course focusing on the sciences, business, etc. [16] This model powerfully unites the benefits of a general IL requirement with those of instruction situated within a disciplinary context.

Whether the course is elective or required, consideration must be given to whether it should be taken simultaneously with or prior to other courses. Requiring that an IL course be taken concurrently with a disciplinary research methods course is one common approach. Biology Library Research at Marietta College must be taken simultaneously with Biology Research. [17] Research Strategies and Information Sources in Latin American Studies at the University of Maryland was specifically designed to support, and be taken concurrently with, a senior capstone course. [18] Another, less common option is requiring that a library research course he completed prior to students' enrolling in another course. The "companion course" for psychology at the University of Oregon was thus to be completed before students enrolled in a research methods course. [19] When deciding where to sequence the course within a department's offerings, attention must be paid to when students typically declare majors and their information needs throughout the program. Offering a disciplinary IL course during students' senior year would reach all majors, while a course during the sophomore year might not. A senior-year course, however, would reach students only after they had completed much of their research within the program and is probably desirable only in conjunction with solid course- and curriculum-integrated library instruction. Targeting the course to students entering the program, conversely, could create a mismatch between students' current content knowledge and the content knowledge they would optimally need to use effectively the information sources and strategies of their discipline. [20] Particularly in the sciences, where students' lack of basic scientific literacy must often be addressed along with their lack of information literacy, courses are commonly pitched toward upper-division undergraduates [21] or beginning graduate or professional students. [22] The scientific writing course for lower-division students at Colgate University, however, provides one model for introducing information literacy to students early--before their disciplinary content base is particularly well developed--by integrating composition and research. [23]

Discipline-specific IL courses can he offered as full-term or partial-term courses. Whether offered for partial or full credit, most courses span an entire academic term. Others, however, are offered on a partial-term basis. Research Strategies and Information Sources in Latin American Studies, for example, began during the third week of the semester and met during the next ten weeks. [24] An advantage of partial term courses is that "by the middle of the term, students would be armed with the tools necessary to complete their research." [25] While it is often easier to teach a one- or two-credit course in a less-than-full term, the number of credits need not be the only factor. A full-credit course could be offered over a half-term by doubling the number of class meetings in a week, although this could make it harder for students to schedule other courses. Some courses, particularly online ones, are self-paced, allowing students to complete coursework on their own schedules. One final option, seldom used, is for the course to extend over multiple academic terms. Introduction to Library Research, a one-credit, required course at Emory, for example, is taken over the first two semesters of incoming graduate students' coursework.

Credit hours and grade assignment

Disciplinary IL courses are offered on a continuum from no credit to full credit. The no-credit option is quite uncommon, appearing only in the case of Information Literacy in the Performing Arts (HLM 020 and HLM 050), courses than meet an IL requirement for undergraduates and graduate students at the Hartt School. This probably works for two reasons: the Hartt School is an intensive, respected performing arts institution, and students have the option of testing out of the course. A no-credit course is generally inadvisable because students will not enroll: "students kept busy with their normal course work usually will not add on courses without credit." [26] Partial credit courses are common, whether one-credit--such as at SUNY Plattsburgh or Oberlin--or two-credits--such as at Weber State. Full-credit courses include Public Health Informatics at Texas A&M. Deciding how many credits the course should carry generally involves complex balancing: the more credits a course carries, the more students value it, [27] but in full departmental curricula, the more credits a course carries, the harder it is to work it in with other offerings.

Universities used both letter grades and pass/fail grading for these courses. The UNIV courses at SUNY Binghamton all give letter grades, while Business Library Sources at California State University, Chico is credit/no credit. Many other courses offer letter grades while letting students invoke campus pass/fail options. Here, again, there is tension between the fact that is often easier to get a pass/fail course approved than one that gives letter grades, but students generally value courses giving letter grades more highly than pass/fail ones. [28]

Instructors for the course

Discipline-specific IL courses are variously taught by librarians (generally subject specialists but sometimes instruction specialists), disciplinary faculty, or teams. Chemistry 396 at Oberlin is team taught by a chemistry librarian and a chemistry faculty member. The team teaching Resource Strategies and Information Sources for Latin American Studies at the University of Maryland consisted of two librarians, while a librarian and an MIS specialist team taught Utilizing Information Technology at Wake Forest University, and an education faculty member and the assistant director of computer technology taught HES 327 at Gustavus Adolphus College. Teams with a librarian and a disciplinary faculty member can help alleviate discomfort students might have with librarians as teachers at institutions where they are not commonly recognized as such. [29] Team teaching can be a powerful instructional mode because it draws upon the strengths of information, technology, and disciplinary content experts, but it is important that all team members behave consistently and as equals in dealing with students. As Ricker says of the successfully team-taught Chemistry course at Oberlin, "we share the teaching and evaluation of weekly problem sets fairly equally." [30]

There can be substantial evolution over time in terms of courses being taught by a sole professor or a team. The course currently known as Library Research Methods in Biology at Weber State University began its existence in 1981 as Biological Literature and was then taught by a Zoology professor. In 1986, a librarian began co-teaching the course, but in 1995 the Zoology professor stopped teaching it and the librarian became sole instructor. [31] Such evolution is particularly possible when librarians are involved because the rules governing FTE generation generally do not apply to them, while a disciplinary faculty who team teaches a course only generates one-half the usual number of FTEs from that course and is typically expected to pick up another course to compensate for the team-taught one. Because faculty change jobs and move to administrative positions, there is often a lack of continuity in the membership of the team teaching a course. As the composition of the team changes, it is important that the compatibility of personalities, teaching styles, and philosophies that created success for the team be maintained. Problems could arise if, for example, a music professor who had originally partnered with a music librarian sharing a commitment to active learning was later paired with a new music librarian who lectured. "Although a perfect match of personalities and philosophies cannot be guaranteed all the time, it is an important component..." [32] and should not be ignored.

When librarians begin teaching discipline-specific IL courses, especially those offered through academic departments, there is the question of who is to fill these librarians' traditional roles within the library. Texas A&M Medical Sciences Library uses paraprofessionals to staff the reference desk, "with librarians on call for complex questions," [33] a factor which somewhat freed librarians' time for involvement in teaching Public Health Informatics. Over two decades ago--before the Web and demands for online tutorials and virtual reference--Rader noted of general library research courses that "teaching the course places an extra burden on the librarian to whom it is assigned, since he or she has to assume this responsibility in addition to regular job duties." [34] Libraries should be leery of adding disciplinary IL courses without increases in staffing or decreases in other services. Sometimes the academic department for which the librarian helps to develop and teach the course compensates the library for time the librarian spends on the course. Such was the case at the University of Maryland when a one-credit IL course for the Latin American Studies Program was developed. The Program provided the library "with the equivalent of an adjunct faculty's salary for each" of the librarians developing the course, and these funds were used to hire adjuncts to cover desk hours. [35] The potential problem with funding discipline-specific IL courses in this way, or through grants, is that the funding--and thus the course--may not be sustainable. Getting a department or a grant-funder to pay for initial course development is often easier than getting them to pay the costs of offering the course term after term.

Course title and curricular approval

The name of the course is a significant consideration in attracting students and in gaining course approval. "Research" by itself in the course title is often problematic, as "research" in the sciences and many social sciences is understood to be something done in the lab, the field, or various places other than the library--what is done in the library is "information research," a "literature review," or "library research." [36] Titles are often designed--and rightly so--with their appeal to students in mind, [37] which may mean omission of the phrase "information literacy" from them. "Utilizing Information Technology," a course in the evening MBA program at Wake Forest University, for example, was solidly an IL course. It covered the range of business research skills, embedding them within the technological skills underlying use of research materials. This approach was taken precisely because it was "felt that the opportunity to learn two sets of complementary skills at the same time, computer usage and business research would be attractive to the students" considering this elective course. [38]

The title of the course is one means of positioning it for curricular approval. Another important consideration in the course approval process is that fact that many campuses had library research methods or bibliography courses within the majors through the early 1970s. [39] Credit courses in library use date back to the late 19th century, when "libraries often offered a credit course in bibliography.'[40] Bibliography courses, commonly taught to graduate students and focused on particular disciplines, were particularly pervasive in the mid-20th century: "Often the various graduate departments in a university will include a course in the bibliography of their particular discipline and require it for all their graduate students." [41 ] Most bibliography courses were electives, and they were "almost always taught by nonlibrarians." [42] For older faculty members, or those with strong senses of institutional history, the precedent of these courses may make current efforts to create discipline-specific IL courses seem familiar. This can be a good thing in some ways, and a bad thing in others. That the instructors of bibliography courses were generally non-librarians may cause some who remember them to balk at librarians teaching today's discipline-specific IL courses. More fundamentally, though, a bibliography class is inherently antithetical to an IL class. Bibliography classes sought to introduce students to a discipline's "best" sources and canonical works. Students were rarely encouraged to have critical, evaluative responses to sources; they were not to ask why, for example, Lawrence Richardson was the source on the topography of ancient Rome, they were simply to acknowledge him as such. Information literacy instruction, in contrast, prompts students to ask routinely what are this author's qualifications, what is the point of view, and various other questions that could render

problematic the accepted authority of certain sources. Some faculty members might still want a bibliography course for their students, rather than an IL one.

Conclusions

Overall, the range of models for discipline-specific IL courses is encouragingly wide. Different institutions have structured such courses in radically different ways, providing varied models for those institutions just beginning the process of creating a discipline-specific IL course. Perhaps the one constant across these courses is also the point most worth emphasizing about them. All of these courses grew out of recognized needs in the disciplinary departments, rather than as courses that the library attempted to "foist" on academic departments. Several courses grew out of disciplinary faculty and librarians working on joint interests. [43] Other courses arose when a department approached the library with its concerns about students' research skills. Ridinger describes how the chair of Geography at Northern Illinois University approached the library with a "formal request ... for assistance in dealing with the problem" of students' "low level of comprehension of available library resources in geographical subjects." [44] Similarly, the Latin American Studies course at the University of Maryland grew out of a request from the director of the Latin American Studies Program for a one-credit, research methods course. [45] PB 1200 at St. Mary's University also "was created with the support of the ... program director; in fact, it is he who approached our library staff about creating an information research class specifically for public justice students." [46] That faculty feel a need for help in teaching research skills to students[47] affords librarians opportunities to partner in developing discipline-specific IL courses.

Endnotes

[1] To give but a few examples, Carroll-Mathes, Chiste et al., Evans, Frantz, and Kaip discuss local approaches to structuring credit-bearing IL courses and their integration into campus curricula, while Davidson surveys faculty and student attitudes toward for-credit IL instruction. Patricia M. Carroll-Mathes, "LIB 111 Information Literacy: From Elective to Requisite Course," in Librarians as Learners, Librarians as Teachers: The Diffusion of Internet Expertise in the Academic Library (Chicago: American Library Association, 1999); Katherine Beaty Chistie, Andrea Glover, and Glenna Westwood, "Infiltration and Entrenchment: Capturing and Securing Information Literacy Territory in Academe," Journal of Academic Librarianship 26, no. 3 (2000); Tina Evans, "Information Literacy (LIB 150) at Fort Lewis College: Innovative Approaches to Instruction in a Required Course," in Making the Grade: Academic Libraries and Student Success (Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2002); Paul Frantz, "A Scenario-Based Approach to Credit Course Instruction," Reference Services Review 30, no. I (2002); and Sarah Kaip, "It's Not Just for Term Papers: Solving Real-Life Problems in an Information Literacy Course," College and Research Libraries News 62, no. 5 (2001); as well as Jeanne R. Davidson, "Faculty and Student Attitudes toward Credit Courses for Library Skills," College and Research Libraries 62, no. 2 (2001).

[2] Marybeth Charters, "The Extent of Bibliographic Instruction in Academic Libraries: Preliminary Examination," Research Strategies 16, no. 2 (1998).

[3] Kathleen L. Spitzer, Michael Eisenberg, and Came A. Lowe. Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age (Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, 1998), 182-183.

[4] Carla List, "Branching Out: A Required Library Research Course Targets Disciplines and Programs," The Reference Librarian nos. 51-52 (1995) and Colleen Bell and Juanita Benedicto, "The Companion Course: A Pilot Project to Teach Discipline-Specific Library Research Skills," Reference Services Review 26, nos. 3-4 (1998).

[5] Gregg S. Geary, Information Literacy: Designing a Class in Research Methods for Music (1997). Available at http://www.sinclair.hawaii.edu/muse,/music261.html; Bob Hebert and Gordon Fitch, "The Business Librarian/MIS Director Partnership: Co-Teaching a For Credit Business School Course," Business & Finance Bulletin no. 104 (1997); Patricia J. Herron and Lily G. Griner, "Research Strategies and Information Sources in Latin American Studies: A One-Credit, Web-based Course," Research Strategies 17 (2000); Leigh Ann Kilman, "Public Justice Information Sources: A Teaching Partnership," Research Strategies 10 (1992); Jill Newby, "Evolution of a Library Research Methods Course for Biology Students," Research Strategies 17 (2000); William Olmstadt and Gale G. Hannigan, "Designing and Delivering a Public Health Informatics Course," Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship (2000). Available at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00-fall/article4.html.; Alison Scott Ricker, "Chemistry Information for the Undergraduate in a One-Credit Course: Faculty/Librarian Team Teaching," Science & Technology Libraries 16, nos. 3-4 (1997); Robert B. Marks Ridinger, "Uncharted Territory: Building a Library Instruction Course in Geography," in The Librarian in the University: Essays on Membership in the Academic Community (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990); and Gary Wiggins, Use of the Internet in Teaching Chemical Information Courses (1996). Available at http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/gw/onlinesymp.html.

[6] For more on the differences in as they apply to specific disciplines, see Anne K. Beaubien, "Bibliographic Instruction in the Social Sciences: Three Models," Thomas G. Kirk, "The Role of Bibliographic Instruction in Science Education," and Maureen Pastine, "Bibliographic Instruction in the Humanities," all in Bibliographic Instruction: The Second Generation (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1987).

[7] Ricker, "Chemical Information," 46-47.

[8] Kilman, "Public Justice."

[9] Where the library cannot offer courses and library faculty do not wish to offer a discipline-specific IL course through an academic department, offering the course through first-year or university seminar programs may be another option. Cf. Laurie Lounsberry McFadden, "Making History Live: How to Get Students Interested in University Archives," College and Research Libraries News 59, no. 6 (1998) on a semester-long seminar on archives at Alfred University that was offered through the university's honors program.

[10] Emily S. Boyce, Ruth M. Katz, and Constance Mellon, "The Place of Bibliographic Instruction in the University Curriculum," in Bibliographic Instruction: The Second Generation (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1987), 60.

[11] The relative merits of elective and required IL courses have long been recognized. See Mignon S. Adams & Jacquelyn M. Morris, Teaching Library Skills for Academic Credit (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1985), 7-8 and Hannelore B. Rader, "Formal Courses in Bibliography, in Educating the Library User (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1974), 280.

[12] Cf. David Fenske, "A Core Literature for Music Bibliography," in Foundations in Music Bibliography (New York: Haworth Press, 1986), 203 and Judith L. Marley & Harry E. Price, "Bringing Music History Alive: Using Artifacts to Explore Historiography," Research Strategies 10 (1992).

[13] See Olmstadt and Hannigan, "Designing and Delivering," on the three-credit Public Health Informatics course at Texas A&M.

[14] See Spitzer, Eisenberg & Lowe, Information Literacy, 182-183.

[15] Ridinger, "Uncharted Territory," 119.

[16] List, "Branching Out."

[17] Similarly, Biological Research Skills at Columbia University must be taken together with Independent Research

[18] Herron and Griner, "Research Strategies." Similarly, the IL "companion courses" at the University of Oregon were created to work with pre-existing courses in journalism, management, and women's students. Bell & Benedicto, "Companion Course."

[19] Bell & Benedicto, "Companion Course," 119.

[20] Beginning chemistry students, for example, are generally unready for Beilstein, Gmelin and structure searching, because they cannot always classify a compound as organic or inorganic, or visualize molecular diagrams.

[21] For example, Biology 4801481 at Marietta College and C 400 at Indiana University. See Wiggins, Use of the Internet.

[22] For example, CHEM 597R at Emory University, PHEB 640 at Texas A&M, and Utilizing Information Technology at Wake Forest (cf. Hebert & Fitch, "Business Librarian/MIS").

[23] Deborah Huerta and Victoria E. McMillan, "Collaborative Instruction by Writing and Library Faculty: A Two-Tiered Apprach to the Teaching of Scientific Writing," Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship (2000). Available at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00fall/article l.html.

[24] Similarly, the "companion course" for management at the University of Oregon met two times a week for the first five weeks of the term. See Bell & Benedicto, "Companion Course," 119.

[25] Bell & Benedicto, "Companion Course," 119.

[26] Rader, "Formal Courses," 280.

[27] Adams and Morris, Teaching Library Skills 13.

[28] Boyce, Katz & Mellon, "Place of Bibliographic Instruction," 60.

[29] Ridinger, "Uncharted Territory," 120.

[30] Ricker, "Chemistry Information," 51.

[31] Newby, "Evolution of a Library Research," 58-59.

[32] Dennis Isbell, "Teaching Writing and Research as Inseparable: A Faculty-Librarian Teaching Team," Reference Services Review 23, no. 4 (1995), 58.

[33] Olmstadt & Hannigan, "Designing and Delivering."

[34] Rader, "Formal Courses," 280.

[35] Herron & Griner, "Research Strategies," 12.

[36] The situation is different in the humanities and some of the social sciences (e.g., history), as is noted by Kirk, "Role of Bibliographic Instruction," 145.

[37] Rader, "Formal Courses," noted a range of possible titles for library research courses, some of which are still applicable.

[38] Hebert & Fitch, "Business Librarian/MIS," 51.

[39] In her survey of the literature on teaching chemical information, Somerville found that prior to 1968 much of the chemical instruction literature described courses, which were "the primary teaching method;" then came a gap in the literature until the 1980s, when "articles discussing courses appeared again." Arleen N. Somerville, "Chemical Information Instruction of the Undergraduate: A Review and Analysis," Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences 25 (1985), 317.

[40] Mary F. Salony, "The History of Bibliographic Instruction: Changing Trends from Books to the Electronic World," in Library Instruction Revisited: Bibliographic Instruction Comes of Age (New York: Haworth Press, 1995), 33.

[41] Rader, "Formal Courses," 279-280.

[42] Rader, "Formal Courses," 279.

[43] The element of chance in some of these partnerships is staggering: see Huerta & McMillan, "Collaborative Instruction."

[44] Ridinger, "Uncharted Territory," 118.

[45] Herron & Griner, "Research Strategies," 12.

[46] Kilman, "Public Justice," 129.

[47] In 1990, before the Web made information access even more complicated, chemistry faculty at ten percent of the schools in one survey did not "feel qualified" to teach chemical information. Arleen N. Somerville, "Perspectives and Criteria for Chemical Information Instruction," Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences 30 (1990), 178.

Kate Manuel, New Mexico State University 

Manuel is Instruction Coordinator at New Mexico State University. She holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Catholic University.