87% of Columbia University Students Believe Literati by Credo Improved the Quality of their Work

BOSTON, Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Credo Reference, a company that believes the world would be a better place if more decisions and ideas were powered by knowledge, today announced the results of a case study conducted at Columbia University around its new Literati solution. Literati helps students not only easily discover and use the library's authoritative content, but also understand the value of the library's resources over non-authoritative sources that are abundant on the open web.  Literati is a library's connection to information literacy.

The study, which was conducted by the Literati Customer Solutions team in conjunction with the embedded librarian coordinators of Columbia's Undergraduate Writing Program, focused on Literati as the core instructional tool for the first-year seminar.  Literati's Mind Map, Topic Pages and customized tutorials were employed to change the understanding of the research process, and Columbia University's students, faculty and librarians confirmed their value and effectiveness.

The case study is freely available to anyone who registers at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Literati_Columbia_Case_Study.

Key findings include the following:

• 100% of students using Literati to understand and connect to Columbia's subscription library resources believed that the quality of their work was improved
• 87% of students who used Literati for research believed the strength of their work increased significantly
• 75% of students who used Literati as a tool for writing their papers believed that their work improved
• 100% of instructors surveyed said students could benefit from customized videos and tutorials created by Credo's on-staff librarians and educators
• 90% of students said they would likely use Literati in the future

"Because (Literati) is such a rich resource, the students gravitated toward it.  It is intuitive and helps them with preliminary work on their projects. Moreover, the librarians can get a lot of mileage out of this one resource," said one instructor who participated in the study.

"Partnering with Columbia University on this case study helped us better understand the specific research and information literacy needs among students in their Undergraduate Writing Program, and tailor their Literati service accordingly," said Mike Sweet, CEO of Credo Reference.  "The knowledge that we have gained will be highly valuable as we continue to evolve Literati's blend of technology, content and services."

About Literati

Literati by Credo has three components:

Technology: 

Literati includes a growing selection of nearly 10,000 Topic Pages that integrate Credo's reference e-books with a library's existing resources and discovery services, extending their value. Topic Pages are valued at over $3.5 million.

Other technologies such as the Mind Map and embedded tools provide a powerful way to visualize and understand the research process.

Content:

Literati is packaged with over 600 XML-enriched general reference e-books along with over 500,000 images, videos and audio clips that enhance learning.

Services:

What makes Literati truly unique are the customized and complementary services provided by on-staff librarians and educators. These services integrate faculty & student outreach, multimedia instruction and assessment tools. Instructional materials such as tutorials, modules and guides are developed based on the library's strategic goals and are not limited to Credo products.  

For more information visit www.credoreference.com/corp.

About Credo Reference

Credo Reference is Library Journal's "Best Overall" Reference 2012 and has been offering completely customizable, "best-in-class" reference collections for libraries since 2002. Credo's General Reference service empowers librarians and effortlessly delivers authoritative answers to millions of researchers worldwide. Literati offers tools and services to improve Digital and Information Literacy. Both platforms allow content expansion through highly acclaimed Publisher and Subject collections.  Find more http://corp.credoreference.com.

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CONTACT:  Mary Kay Jezzini, +1-212-352-1404, [email protected]

SOURCE Credo Reference