The Polytechnique Montréal library team has just earned a prestigious award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). The Polytechnique team's article about the evolution of graduate student documentary training by means of a workshop, that's the envy of students all over North America.
Top row, from left to right: Élise Anne Basque, Christine Brodeur and Manon Du Ruisseau.
Bottom row, from left to right: Jimmy Roberge, Arina Soare and Marie Tremblay.
Last Autumn, Manon Du Ruisseau (Polytechnique Montréal's Bibliothèque Louise-Lalonde-Lamarre, Head of Consultation Services) brainstorms with her team the possibility of authoring a scientific article about the library, to be presented at the ASEE 2020 congress.
"I thought we could present the workshop we hold at the library, CAP7005 - Traitement de l'information scientifique et technique (Processing Scientific and Technical Information). It was kind of a unique context because the congress was to occur in Montreal. Also, I really wanted us to win the Best Article," notes Du Ruisseau.
The CAP7005 workshop is offered each semester to Polytechnique's Research Masters and Doctoral students, and in 2019-2020, some 425 students partook. The one-credit workshop is taught by librarians under the guidance of Patrick Desjardins (Department of Engineering Physics).
"To my knowledge, there are very few university libraries that provide this type of credited, mandatory workshop for graduate students, so it's a point of envy for other institutions," explains Du Ruisseau.
Over the past 18 years, labs that are part of the ING6900 course, and the CAP7005 workshop have enabled students to become familiar with documentary research tools and strategies specific to engineering. Participants are required to consult scientific articles, as well as technical standards, patents, masters and doctoral theses, and other documents.
"We equip them with information processing skills, which in turn develops their critical thinking skills. This helps them complete their literature reviews and be more aware of articles and information closely related to their research projects," comments Polytechnique librarian Marie Tremblay.
The article, Credited information literacy training sessions for graduate students, still relevant after 18 years: A case study, presents an analysis of the training workshop since its creation, and notably highlights how much the workshop has been appreciated and valued over the years.
In the Engineering Libraries (ELD) category (which has some 30 other articles), Polytechnique's article earned top marks from the judges' panel. The article is now eligible for Best Article award from the Professional Interest Council IV, of which the ELD is a part, and further, the article may win Best Article of the Conference honours from the ASEE at a date that is at present to-be-determined. The virtual presentation took place June 24, 2020, and over a hundred individuals participated in the question and answer period.
A Virtual conference
comprises some 12 000 members largely hailing from North America, from engineering education institutions, as well as industry and government representatives. The organization's main objective is to promote the transmission of educational best practices and knowledge in the field of engineering.
Under non-pandemic circumstances, the annual conference would have taken place at Montréal's Palais des congrès; this year however the conference became a series of virtual conferences, in order to maintain health and safety guidelines.
The CAP7005 course is one of many workshops and training sessions provided by the skilled team at Polytechnique's Bibliothèque Louise-Lalonde-Lamarre. To consult a complete list of their educational offerings, please refer to the library website (In French).
Learn more
Bibliothèque Louise-Lalonde-Lamarre website
Award-winning article "Credited information literacy training sessions for graduate students, still relevant after 18 years: A case study"
CAP7005 - Traitement de l'information scientifique et technique course documents
ING6900 - Méthodes de recherche course documents
Article Presentation, via virtual platform at the American Society for Engineering Education conference
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) website
For more information
2500, Chemin de Polytechnique, Bureau A-201, 2e étage
Montréal Québec
Canada H3C 3A7
www.polymtl.ca
