iassist quarterly - 3

Educating the

data user

Introduction

Finding information today need not mean going

to a librar,-. One can put a data diskette into a

microcomputer, dial a remote mainframe

through a modem, or turn on a CD-ROM drive

from a desk at home, from the office, or from

a college lab. And the information sources

accessed can be as varied and as complex as the

collection of a college library-. But has the ease

of access to information sources increased

"information literacy", the ability to define a

search strategy, identify good access sources,

retrieve appropriate materials, and evaluate

sources located. Probably not Information

skills in use today are too often identical to

those used when the gateway to information was

the librar)-'s card catalog and the Reader's

Guide!

New information access skills must be

developed. Retrieval skills which can fully

exploit the potential in contemporary

information access by combining traditional print

sources with electronically generated media in

an innovative synthesis. To meet this challenge,

a growing number of American colleges and

universities have added modiJes on electronic

information access to their bibliographic

instruction programs. Many articles in the

literature describe their successes and failures.

But an examination of this literature indicates

that no specific attention is given to pubhc data

in machine-readable format

Despite the growing importance of datafiles in

business, public administration and academia

research, public data is still discussed primarily

in its print form in bibliographic instruction.

Obviously this doesn't mean college students

don't learn about data. Quite the contrary.

College courses in business and the social

sciences are ver>' quantitative in keeping with

the reality of the way business and research is

conducted today. But the objective of most

quantitative courses in these disciplines is the

development of technical and analytic skills, not

the acquisition of information proficiency.

Often instructor-created, the datasets used in

cours^work offer analytic problems but bear no
relation to actual public data sources. Data

sources which these same students will surely

use on a regular basis in their careers in

business, in public agencies or in academia.

The failure to teach them to design search

strategies which include numeric datafiles. to

evaluate the usefulness of these files alongside

the same information in other formats, and to

acquire these files in the most efficient manner

possible, leaves a large gap in their training.

Identifying and locating good numeric data

sources and choosing among the storage formats

available are important information skills.

At Baruch College, City University of New
York, the objective of the Library Instruction

Division is to educate faculty and students,

graduate and imdergraduate. to the vast

possibilities of the contemporary information

Summer 1988



4 - iassist quarterly

environment We have included all the varied

sources the Library presently collects, including

machine-readable datafiles. We treat datafiles

as an as an information resource, leaving to

others the analytic training of data users. The
ptirpose of this panel is describe the efforts that

have been made at the college to incorporate

numeric datafiles into a very varied

bibliographic instruction program and to

underline the importance of bibliographic

instruction in the training of data users. The
panel consists of members of the Library

Instruction Division each of whom, besides their

instructional responsibilities, has responsibility

for another data-related library function. Each

of the panelists will discuss their individual

roles and the work they have done in

developing the methods being used in this

program. But first some information about

Baruch College.

Baruch College is a four-year college,

predominantly underpaduate. It is part of one

of the largest public university systems in the

United States: the City University of New York.

Il consists of three schools. Liberal Arts,

Education and Educational Services and Business

although its primary strength, and the majority

of the student body, is in the business fields.

Most of the graduate programs, which include a

Ph.D. are in business fields. To meet the needs

of its students and facult>-, the Library began an

instructional program more than 15 years ago.

Its goal was and is the improvement cf the

level of "information literacy" among Baruch

graduates and faculty.

The Baruch programs emphasize the

responsibility of the researcher or information

consumer to develop appropriate strategies for

finding information, to become knowledgeable

about major sources in a field, and to choose

access methods most appropriate to the problem

at hand. Extremely sophisticated and complex,

the course offerings have responded to changes

in the information environment students are

expected to work in. The program offers levels

of education and training suitable for students

and faculty with differing needs and differing

backgrounds. The ofTerings include

Library Orientation Exercises

Library Research Workshops — one or two

lecttire modules given within another course

to meet specific information objectives within

that course

Bibliographic Instruction Courses — 3 credit

courses designed to teach the conceptual

aspects of information access as well as the

specific skills of information retrieval

Computerized Information Services Training

Seminars — Programs designed to teach

online information access;

Data Resources Seminars — seminars

devoted to machine-readable numeric

datafiles

specialized Study Center to provide resources

and training for graduate business students.

The most recent addition to this multi-faceted

program is a curriculum, currently under

development, for an information studies major

and minor intended for those students in liberal

arts, business or education who are interested in

pursuing information, not necessarily library,

careers.

The papers presented as part of this panel will

detail how numeric datafiles, public data

sources, have been incorporated into the varying

parts of this program.n

Summer 1988