A Librarian's Perspective
Librarians are delighted when faculty members encourage their students to
use ISU's Library for various assignments. We believe that students should
become familiar with their campus library and its collections and
services. We like to know that people use and appreciate the wide variety
of resources we offer. More than that, we know that once students become
familiar with a library, they tend to use that library more in the future
and the chances are greater that they will continue to be life-long
learners.
Those of us who work at the Library's reference desk and research
consultation rooms
have seen students bring all types of assignments to reference librarians for
assistance. Based on our experiences, and in the interest of making your
assignments valuable educational experiences, we would like to offer the
following suggestions for making assignments that will require your
students to use the Library.
1. Make sure you know the Library
ISU's Library is constantly
changing. Resources that were available in one format one semester may be
available in a different format the next semester. For example, a database that was
formerly on
CD-ROM may now be available to us via the web, or a print source may
have been substituted by an electronic version of the same source. Each
semester, before you hand out your assignment, check with your subject
librarian to make sure that your assignment has the most up-to-date
information.
2. If you want all students
to use the same book, journal
issue, or article, make sure it's on Reserve
Once the first
person has found the source, most likely it will be off the shelf for the next person.
If students are all to use one source, often they will mark in the source
the location of the correct answer. Or some may want to get an advantage,
so they will either rip out the page(s) with the correct answer or hide
the source so others can't find it.
3. Scavenger hunts
They may sound useful and instructional to you, but often
students see scavenger hunts as nothing more than busy work. They may lead to the
same treatment of sources as described in tip number 2, above. They may also
contribute to a student's negative feelings about using the Library,
especially if the hunt is detailed and difficult, or the reasons for
finding or using
particular sources are unclear.
4. Term papers
Term papers can be an excellent means of introducing students to library
research, yet they're only one type of assignment you can give to
encourage students to use the Library. Your subject librarian has lots of
ideas for other types of assignments you can give to help students learn
to find and use information.
5. Make sure students are absolutely sure of what they are supposed
to do for the assignment
Put it in writing. Send a copy of the assignment
to your subject librarian so that s/he can alert the Reference Desk staff to
the questions your students will have. When students are not clear
about an assignment, they often ask a librarian to help interpret
"what my professor wants." Librarians encourage such
students to talk to their professors with any questions concerning their
assignments. However, other students may be just as confused and not know
it, and provide librarians with an interpretation very different from what
you may have had in mind.
6. Specific examples may backfire
Keep in mind that when you suggest a specific resource for the students
to use, they will usually take you quite literally and will very likely
refuse to accept another source, no matter how relevant. If you mean for
them to use a particular TYPE of source, be very clear that titles you
mention are only examples; they can ask the librarian for other examples
of the same types of sources.
7. Be clear about use of the
Internet
The library has most popular indexes
and many journals online. Telling
students they cannot use the
Internet prohibits them from using
many of our legitimate,
authoritative online resources. If
you want them to use scholarly
library resources, then tell them
not to use web search engines like
Google, or restrict the number of
sources they may use from general
search engines.
8. Give students a particular citation style to use
They are confused
and unclear when required to pick one themselves. Some faculty require
MLA, some APA, others Chicago. Kate Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term
Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is a good general, understandable source
for the students to use to ensure consistent, accurate citations.
Examples of available citation styles are listed on the Commons guide, Style
Manuals on the Web and In Print.
9. Work through the assignment yourself
Often you can catch
ambiguities and faulty information when you follow your own directions.
Even such minor errors as a call number with transposed letter or numbers
or an inaccurate title can cause students frustration and make the
experience of using the Library unpleasant. Or, you could ask your
subject librarian to work through the assignment for you. Librarians may be
able to suggest newer / better resources to help complete the assignment, and
they will know the challenges your students will bring with them when they
are working on your assignment.
10. Assume minimal library knowledge
Library 160 is an introductory course that addresses basic information
retrieval concepts, using very general examples. Even if they have taken Library 160, or have used a research library
before, many students are
overwhelmed the first time they walk into a large university library
and have to do meaningful research. Subject-specific research databases
are not addressed at all in Library 160, and resources available in the
ISU Libraries may differ from those that students may have used at other
libraries. Students are often surprised to learn that today's
digital resources frequently change appearance and functionality. Even a database they used in the recent past may be
"completely different" from the way it used to be. Library anxiety,
a common phenomenon among college students at all levels, is another
factor to consider. Encourage students to consult with ISU reference
librarians.
11.
Librarians dealing with each of the students in your class as they come
individually to the
Reference Desk is like you teaching your classes one-on-one
Although
librarians do not begrudge giving assistance to students who are having
problems or who want to know what they can do next, frequent and repetitive
questions from the same class are tedious and often cause lines at the
Reference Desk. If you find that many of your students have the same
library-related questions, that's a good sign that your class is a good
candidate for collaborating with the Instruction Commons, and a group library
instruction session could be another good addition to the class.
Contact your
subject librarian and make arrangements for a
Commons class or a group
presentation on the resources you want your students to use. There are
many alternatives for addressing their library needs as a group.
Your
subject librarian will work with you to make sure that your students
learn how to use the Library and its collections and services, and that
their first encounters with the research process are as productive
and as efficient as possible. We encourage you to give assignments that
will get your students into the Library; we're here to help you design
assignments that will contribute to your course objectives and foster
continued use of library and information resources.
Rebecca Jackson, 10/2001
Revised 12/2005
