Online Learning Communities: Enhancing Undergraduate Students ‘ Acquisition of Information Skills

Since the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, 2000) approved the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, many efforts have been made to help undergraduate students develop the information skills they need. Although there are different activities that have been developed to facilitate the acquisition of information skills and work with the students’ limitations and the problems that are evidenced, and research has identified librarians as the key resource to educate students and to help them develop better research skills (Mundava, & Chaudhuri, 2007; Wilbe, 2006), the reality is that librarians do not have enough time available to spend with students and to support them. Students do not value the presence of the librarians in the classroom and do not consider that the provided information is part of the content they are learning (Brendle-Moczuk, 2006). The librarians are usually at a disadvantage when trying to assess the students´ learning after only one session, for three main reasons: the limited contact with students, the absence of faculty support, and the librarian´s different responsibilities (Choinski & Emanuel, 2005).