The CATESOL Journal

Researchers (Bowley & Meng, 1994; Cope & Black, 1985; Kamhi-Stein, 1996) have focused on the need for librarians and ESL faculty to collaborate on teaching library skills for academic purposes. These skills are needed to utilize resources that include print materials, computer databases, and Internet sources. Information literacy competency standards are currently being developed on the national, state, and local levels by library and educational organizations, but little is known about ESL instructors’ perceptions of teaching library research skills, also known as information competency skills. This study surveyed full-time and part-time ESL faculty at an urban community college about the levels at which various information competency skills should be taught. The results of this study reveal that most fulltime ESL instructors favored introducing only the most basic library skills (such as how to check out books and information about how a library is organized) at the beginning ESL level. They favored teaching most other information competency skills (such as database retrieval and on-line resources) at more advanced ESL levels. It is evident from this study that ESL curriculum designers need to integrate all library and information research skills in a progressive manner with sufficient scaffolding and collaboration among librarians, teachers, and students.