SHSP/HSL Information Management Competencies Initiative: Home

 June 9, 2014

Dear Colleagues:

All of our students should be able to find, evaluate, use and communicate information. To give all students the opportunity to acquire and develop these skills, we will:

1. Encourage all students to complete a series of library skills tutorials.
2. For Public Health students, reinforce these skills through application in specific assignments within our public health core courses.
3. Clinical Programs can develop their own strategies and assignments to reinforce these skills. 

The Health Sciences Library has developed a set of six Information Management Competencies for all NYMC graduates. All graduates will be able to:

1. Define an information need in terms of developing a searchable question;
2. Select appropriate resources relative to an information need in order to find the best available information;
3. Demonstrate the use of search terms and database features to construct a logical search strategy;
4. Evaluate information resources and the quality of information retrieved including the source, authorship, currency, quality, reliability, and applicability to professional practice;
5. Synthesize and summarize information to produce original content appropriate for an intended purpose, and to include a well formatted bibliography;
6. Demonstrate understanding of intellectual property and copyright laws, including plagiarism, the ethical use of information and fair use.

 A tutorial series has been developed by the HSL that includes all of the competencies. It is called INFORMATION 101: https://guides.library.nymc.edu/howdoi

Students can choose to complete them as many times as they wish. They will receive an email certificate of completion at the end of each tutorial.

As noted above, for Public Health students these newly acquired skills will then be reinforced and “put to the test” in core courses through specific assignments. 

Students will be made aware of the tutorials two ways. 1) Acceptance letters will now include the information and all continuing students will be notified via email.  2) A link will be placed on the LMS on the STUDENT RESOURCES course site. This link will be in the first topic area right below the Academic Integrity Policy and Quiz.

You may also choose to provide a link on your course site. Please contact Lydia Cavieux if you need help posting it.

Thank you for supporting this important initiative.

Ben 

Ben C. Watson, Ph.D.
Vice Dean, School of Health Sciences & Practice and Institute of Public Health
Professor, Speech-Language Pathology
New York Medical College
Valhalla, NY 10595
(914) 594-4531