A college course for nurses on the utilization of library resources

Library user instruction has been a no-man's-land between librarian and educator. Each assumes that the other has offered the student some necessary preparation before his assignments requiring library consultation. Too often, this is not the case. Reference librarians at the Duke University Medical Center Library are currently offering a ten-week, 1 1/2-hour credit library instruction course for nursing baccalaureate candidates. "Introduction to Library Resources in the Nursing Field" is designed not so much to orient students to a specific library facility, but rather, to provide them with background material on library organization and services and to familiarize them with basic bibliographic tools relevant to the nursing profession. Lectures are supplemented through the use of homework questions, bibliographies, handouts, in-class exercises, and on-line demonstrations. Very positive feedback from both students and faculty has attested to the value of such a course in the nursing curriculum and has resulted in its being offered four times to date. The library staff is exploring methods for offering additional library instruction not only to nursing students but to other user groups in Duke's medical complex.