Learning how to use the library effectively and efficiently is one of the most important things a student can do to ensure a successful college experience. Far too often, students believe Wikipedia and Google are all they need to write a research paper. As faculty know, Wikipedia and Google are useful tools, but they are unlikely to be sufficient for writing an academic research paper! The sooner students learn about what the library has to offer, the sooner they will be delivering research papers and other assignments that productively utilize Buley Library’s many excellent resources.
SKILLS AND OUTCOMES
Ideally, library research and information literacy skills should be integrated into the course, continually reinforced and built upon at the appropriate level for the student. It may help to think of your students as being somewhere on a continuum of learning that has identifiable outcomes at each level.
INQ 101 Students should learn:
• Where the library is
• The difference between the Research & Information Desk, the Check Out Desk, and the IT Help Desk
• How to log in for off-campus access/course reserves/requests
• The difference between the open internet and the library’s scholarly online article databases
• That there is a subject librarian for every major, and how to contact those librarians
• How to use SouthernSearch to find a variety of library resources and start to differentiate between them
• How to cite the resources they find
[All of this is covered in the INQ 101 FYRE Library Assignment and session.]
Higher Level Students should learn:
• How to create and use a search strategy, including keywords, synonyms, Boolean operators, and truncation symbols
• How to evaluate information sources
• How to locate an article if they already have the citation
• How to request a book from interlibrary loan
• What a literature review is and how to write one
• How to properly cite all materials
• Familiarity with the style guide for their major
• Familiarity with the databases for their major
• Familiarity with the information cycle, different kinds of publications, and how scholarly knowledge is created and shared
HOW THE LIBRARY CAN HELP YOU INTEGRATE LIBRARY SKILLS INTO YOUR COURSES
Tours and Demonstrations for Faculty
Librarians are available to provide tours of library resources to new faculty. We are also happy to meet with any faculty to discuss and demonstrate how the library works, new services, new databases, and changes to database design or function.
Creating Research Assignments
We can also assist at the stage when you are creating research assignments for your students. We occasionally see assignments at the Research & Information Desk that require students to use resources to which Buley Library does not have immediate access. If you are not certain that Buley’s resources are adequate for a particular assignment, check with a librarian. We can tell you whether the project is feasible at Buley, suggest ways to adjust the assignment so that it can be completed with our resources, or offer alternative resources for the assignment.
Tours for Students
Tours of the library building provide students with a sense of the library as a physical space. Students will learn where different library needs are met (Research & Information vs. Check Out Desk), where different resources are located (DVDs vs. reference books), which floors are the best for studying, and much more. We also have a Virtual Tour.
Course Specific Instruction
Whether in a library classroom, the usual course classroom, or online, students learn about how to narrow or broaden a research question, how to select the most useful database for a topic, the best search strategies, revising a search query, accessing full-text materials, and saving search results. Students can also try various searches on their own and have the opportunity to ask questions about their research topics while both the librarian and the instructor are in available.
Research & Information Desk Assistance
Librarians are almost always available at the Research & Information Desk and/or via Librarian Chat to help students learn to use SouthernSearch and library databases, starting with selecting a database and progressing to the best search strategies and how to evaluate the results.
Individualized Assistance
If you feel only a few of your students need library instruction, rather than the entire class, feel free to refer them directly to the subject librarian for assistance with a particular database or assignment.
SETTING UP AN INSTRUCTION SESSION
You may request an instruction session by going to http://libguides.southernct.edu/formclass or by contacting one of the subject librarians
