PREPARING GEOLOGY UNDERGRADUATES FOR THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE: BIBLIOGRAPHIC INSTRUCTION AND INFORMATION LITERACY AS CORE ELEMENTS IN A TECHNICAL WRITING CLASS

In the mid 1990’s the University of Colorado Department of Geological Sciences realized that the required upper division writing class was not meeting the needs of their students. They determined that a technical writing class focusing on the geosciences was needed. Dr. Mary Kraus was the leading proponent of this and enlisted the Head of the Earth Sciences Library to help design and co-teach the class with her. The class, Writing in the Geosciences, is required for an undergraduate geology degree. While the class has changed through the years with several different Geological Sciences faculty co-teaching, the information literacy component, focusing on research strategies, critical thinking regarding the validity of information retrieved, and knowledge of bibliographic databases, has remained a mainstay. The current faculty member teaching the class, Dr. Henrietta Laustsen, has done so for several years and works closely with the librarian organizing the syllabus and designing assignments, taking into account comments from previous class members on course evaluations. Building a resume, as a writing assignment, is also a part of the class and is taught by the librarian.