Information Competencies: A Strategic Approach.

This paper will discuss the need to integrate information competencies into engineering programs at the curriculum level. To support this argument, the various opportunities for library instruction available in academic libraries (and the relative effectiveness of each) will be reviewed. It will be argued that the most effective of these is curriculum-integrated instruction, which is competency based and strategic in nature. However, the quantity of work and coordination required to build an instruction program that is truly curriculum-integrated oftentimes leads to a product that is course-integrated rather than curriculum-integrated. An informal survey was conducted of NC State University students in the Colleges of Textiles and Engineering and illustrates where course-integrated instruction falls short of its goal. This paper concludes with an outline of a plan for implementing a curriculum-integrated instruction program.