Beyond our horizon: Reaching out to engineering faculty to teach spatial literacy

Abstract

The National Research Council of the National Academies has recognized the importance of spatial thinking as an important skill in the 21st century, and in its report "Learning to Think Spatially", supports its integration in the K-12 curriculum. Building on universities' increasingly recognized and integral support for Information Literacy, comes the realization that Spatial Literacy should be another of those skills that should be taught at the tertiary level. Recognizing the growing need for help with GIS support, the University Library set out to develop a structure for the support of Spatial Literacy on campus. Engineering support in the library has traditionally remained firmly text based, supporting the academic side of Engineering research, but leaving much data development and practice in the domain of the laboratory. In fact, there has been little demand from instructors for library instruction in Engineering classes. In contrast to this trend, the Initiative for Spatial Literacy was launched by the libraries, by the hiring of an adjunct faculty member from the School of Engineering who spearheads the program, collaborating with the university's Engineering Librarian. This article will explain what spatial literacy is, and will describe how the program was developed, and how it has grown and expanded to become a truly multi-disciplinary program on campus. We will argue that integrating GIS into the services offered by the library encourages students, particularly Engineering students, to participate in interdisciplinary and collaborative processes.