Cowles Library Drake University

Faculty members looking for a library instruction session should email reference@drake.edu or call x4821.

Over the last decade, the world of information has changed radically. The amount of information produced has grown significantly and the ease with which that information can be accessed has increased exponentially. Given this state of affairs, the role of libraries–the traditional storehouses of information in print form–has also changed. Libraries are now seen as sources of knowledge about how to handle ever larger volumes of information and the ever more powerful tools needed to search through it.

To address this situation, Cowles Library provides students with a variety of instructional options focused on helping them find information, assess the validity and reliability of what they find, and to understand the ethical issues involved in the retrieval, and exploitation of that information.

First Year Seminars

With few exceptions, all first year Drake students are required to enroll in a First Year Seminar (FYS), a course designed to introduce them to university level academic work. Since these courses often involve intensive research tasks, Cowles Library encourages FYS instructors to arrange one library session for their students. In these sessions, students are given a basic introduction to the resources and tools appropriate to conducting research in the topic of their first year seminar. Providing students with a basic understanding of how to carry out university level research is the goal of these intensive one-hour classes.

Information Literacy (LIBR 046)

Cowles Library faculty offer a two-credit course directed at students who are interested in improving their research skills. The course also fulfills the Drake Curriculum’s Information literacy area of inquiry (AOI) requirement. Information Literacy seeks to provide students with an understanding of the structure of the information universe–both print and electronic, to develop students’ skills in using information retrieval tools, to sharpen students’ ability to make intelligent assessments of the validity and accuracy of information they find, and to raise students’ awareness of the necessity for an ethical approach to information use. The course is generally offered each semester in two sections. An internet iteration of Information Literacy is also offered during the Summer.