To promote the spirit of innovation and scientific research: 

University College and the UAEU Libraries Deanship launched a new pilot course on information literacy as a compulsory course for the college’s students. It entailed a series of interactive applied workshops and ran from Sunday 4/9/2016 to Wednesday 7/9/2016. 500 students from various disciplines took part.

Professor Fouad Estefan, Acting Dean of University College, said that, “these applied interactive workshops aim to introduce students via information literacy to the potential offered by the university’s libraries. The libraries have everything from paper to electronic information sources. In addition to training students in the latest methodologies for scientific research, the course developed their research skills in line with the highest and newest standards in the library sciences. This is to enable students to carry out academic research projects through utilizing information sources, databases, publications, scientific journals and electronic research.”

The interactive workshops included practical technological training and interactive use of information sources and databases via the search engine LIWA. This search engine covers huge databases, many scientific journals, a plethora of research articles, methods for electronic authentication, and how to correctly negotiate copyright laws in scientific research.

The information literacy course is part of an initiative to promote innovation and research in new students by introducing them to the best methods for managing information sources, teaching them about computers and other factors related to scientific research. Students learned to access information and to understand the impact on this information in academic terms. They are now well versed in how the many facilities and resources of the university libraries can be accessed.