University of Michigan (University of Michigan, School of Information)

The University of Michigan' School of Information and the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University will design, develop, test, and evaluate a computer game, Bibliobouts, to teach incoming undergraduate students essential information literacy skills . Five institutions – Chicago State University, Troy University Montgomery, Saginaw Valley State University, the University of Baltimore, and the University of Dubuque – will field test and evaluate Bibliobouts. Project evaluation will determine if gaming is effective for teaching incoming students information literacy skills, and whether or not students retain and apply these skills appropriately. If this project demonstrates that students want to play Bibliobouts and effectively learn important literacy skills, then several stakeholders in the educational enterprise will benefit. The game, research results, best practices for game design and development, and game play strategies for effective information literacy education will be made publicly available. This game will integrate Zotero, a dynamic scholarly communication citation tool developed by CHNM with initial funding from the IMLS.