Session 1: Information Literacy

There is a research support triangle between the supervisor, student and librarian. All three have an important role to play in ensuring quality research.

Self-exploration questions: Look through these questions and see whether you are confident about your place on the triangle.

1. What relationship do you and your students have with the library?
2. What kinds of library support services are there for your postgraduate students? Provide details.
3. How do you access your own library’s holdings?
4. How do you keep up with the latest research in your field?
5. What online databases does your institution use?
6. Which referencing software does your institution provide? (For example: Endnote, Refworks, Zotero, Mandeley and Paperpile)
7. What are the procedures that you need to follow to use your institution’s interlibrary loan system?
8. What referencing and style guides are available to you online at your institution?
9. What is an open access site?
10. Do you know how to create a search alert?

If you were not satisfied with your own responses to these questions, how might you address your information literacy shortfalls? Use this week’s forum to share what resources and support your institution’s library offers.

The list below has been developed by experienced subject librarians. Make a note of the areas where you believe that you need to approach the library for training and support for yourself or your students:

• Introduction to the library: Supervisors need to introduce postgraduate students to the relevant library subject specialists and recognise the importance of this research-support relationship for the student. The supervisor needs to be familiar with the resources and library spaces available to doctoral candidates in their university. For example, this could include research and postgraduate commons areas in the Library, which promote a postgraduate community of practice.
• Literature review and current awareness: Supervisors need to ensure that their students are equipped to conduct thorough literature reviews. This entails finding relevant print and electronic materials using research databases and the use of current awareness options such as citation, search and journal issue tables of content alerts/RSS feed.
• Referencing: Supervisors need to be proficient in the use of reference software management tools, such as RefWorks, EndNote, Procite, Mendeley, Zotero, or Paperpile. Supervisors may need to be familiar with style guides and manuals.
• Research analysis and dissemination: Supervisors need to be able to use citations, journals and research impact analysis tools (Web of Science Citation Indices; journal analytics, for example: SNIP, SJR, ISI Journal Citation Reports; InCites, SciVal).
• Research publication awareness: Supervisors need to understand the world of scholarly publishing. This includes an awareness of the trends and pitfalls of academic publishing, and issues such as open access and institutional repositories.
• Academic networking: It is advisable for supervisors to be familiar with and create a profile on available academic networking options, for example: ORCID (increasingly essential in the SA context as preferred by NRF), Academia.edu, ResearchGate.

Look through this PowerPoint on the significance of information literacy at postgraduate level.

After you have looked through the powerpointon the significance of information literacy at postgraduate level, please post a comment to this week’s forum indicating your key lesson from this session.