purpose: this paper aims to explore best practices in academic and research libraries in providing information literacy (il) instruction to science and engineering graduate students.

design/methodology/approach: using the questionnaire survey method, we conducted an il assessment study on 114 graduate students enrolling in graduate courses offered by college of chemistry and chemical engineering, graduate university of chinese academy of sciences (gucas).

findings: the current situation of graduate students' il competencies and the need to develop them are revealed. an il course was designed by subject librarians of national science library (nsl), chinese academy of sciences (cas), with three patterns addressing the development of graduate students' il competencies.

research limitations: it is only about the practice of subject librarians at nsl, cas, in designing il courses for graduate students enrolling in graduate courses offered by college of chemistry and chemical engineering, gucas.

practical implications: the results can provide a lot of useful information for the improvement of il competencies of graduate students in science and technology disciplines.

originality/value: it is significant for assisting future subject librarians in incorporating il skills into their course, especially for academic and research librarians to prepare and develop il courses for science and engineering graduate students.