What is IME?
IME stands for Information Management Education. IME is a service of the Reference & Education Services (RES) department of the University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library. All RES faculty librarians conduct classes and workshops as a part of IME. IME is also sometimes referred to colloquially as the HSL library instruction program.

What is the goal of IME?
We provide instructional programs and services to the health sciences schools, with the primary goal of cultivating information literate health sciences students and faculty through the development of classes and other instructional resources and programs. We help our users build information skills that will be with them throughout their careers.

What is information literacy?
To succeed in academia and research, our users need to be able to find, use, manage, evaluate, and convey information efficiently and effectively. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has developed a set of information literacy standards to which the IME program adheres.

Much more information on information literacy is available online. Many of the associations that accredit the health sciences schools also have adopted their own information literacy standards and guidelines. We work with faculty to meet those standards whenever possible.

What is information fluency?
A series of standards from the Associated Colleges of the South, information fluency recognizes an optimal outcome of combining information literacy training with computer skills and critical thinking skills training. It suggests a higher standard for library instruction programs like ours, but also recommends a best-case approach where this program works best with IT skills training and assessment, and faculty input and cooperation in critical skills training. In other words, our students benefit the most when librarians, IT professionals, and faculty members work together in teaching information skills.

The IME program fully supports and endorses the information literacy standards of the ACRL. Whenever possible, we try to employ the strategies of information fluency as outlined above.

What services does IME offer?
Every Fall and Spring semester, the IME program conducts regularly-scheduled workshops on a variety of information- and library-related topics, including searching bibliographic databases, library resources and services, new Internet technologies and software, and personal information management skills.

We also offer "Workshops on Demand," a rotation of hand-picked workshops that we can customize and deliver to users on their time, and in locations of their choosing. The only requirement for scheduling any Workshop on Demand is an audience of five or more. Workshops on Demand are perfect for faculty luncheons, student group meetings, and departmental in-services.

Primarily, however, the IME program is geared toward custom-engineered information literacy sessions to be taught in the classroom, either as part of a course-based project or paper, or as part of a curriculum-oriented effort to help students achieve the full rank of information literacy standards within a school or department. We have achieved a great deal of success in both course- and curriculum-based instruction, mainly through close collaboration with the teaching faculty.

Lastly, IME librarians produce online tutorials and web pages to support learning and research. An example of this is the InfoPods audio tutorials project. We also maintain a separate Tutorials page. If you have any questions, please contact Dean Hendrix, Coordinator of Education Services.