Integrating information literacy skills into engineering courses to produce lifelong learners

One criterion of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is that engineering students must develop lifelong learning skills in order for a program to be accredited. We argue that developing information literacy skills will allow students to exert more control over their own learning within and beyond the classroom so they will develop these skills. We have developed several methods of injecting information literacy skills seamlessly into engineering courses so students will see the value of being able to find information on their own. These activities incorporate discussions on peer reviewed materials, the appropriateness of using the Web for gathering information, and databases common to a core discipline. Pre- and post-implementation evaluations by sophomore, junior, and senior engineering students from two different engineering disciplines show that the incorporation of information literacy skills strengthens students' understanding of how to find and use information in engineering contexts. Future work would investigate whether students are indeed becoming lifelong learners by surveying their use of library information tools after they graduate.