An engineering librarian with special skills

Posted on January 19, 2017

I know an information superhero! An information superhero for student engineers!

Meet my special colleague, Ms Cora Bezuidenhout -- Information Specialist: Civil Engineering; Industrial and Systems Engineering; and Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, from the Department of Library Services – as well as 2014-2016 LIASA Gauteng North Branch Executive Committee Member … with her poster as presented at the 17th Annual LIASA Conference in Durban:

The Engineering Librarian – do you have the knack?

Superhero skills are needed to assist student engineers in finding the correct and relevant resources they need. In Cora’s own words: I was given those skills when I became a librarian more than 20 years ago.

Student engineers seem to have a preference for channels that require the least effort or seem to require the least effort, such as the Internet.’  

Cora’s strategy is to practice embedded librarianship. Cora is reaching out to her students by arranging compulsory hands-on training sessions; by creating up-to-date Libguides; and by having her own office within the School of Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology, where she can be easily reached for any library, information and research related inquiries.

In other words, Cora goes to the student engineers and practices and shares her superhero skills with them, in their own environment. When a civil engineering student needed information on PMS … Cora soon learned that the actual need is for information on Pavement Management Systems!

Cora had no clue what laser shock peering was, but while pretending to know exactly what it was, Cora’s superhero searching skills and tools allowed her to find all the correct and relevant resources, and to impress and assist an information seeking student engineer!

The lesson: Never stop learning – become an information superhero!

Congratulations with your poster and presentation at the LIASA Conference Cora!

- Author Martha de Waal, LIASA Gauteng North Branch Chair; and: Cataloguing Co-ordinator, University of Pretoria Department of Library Services

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