Library Assignments
Use these strategies to write great library assignments that give
your students a successful library research experience.
Writing the Assignment:
- Do the assignment yourself. Make sure the SCC library has the resources
you require. Check LOIS for
books and the Databases for
articles. Ask a librarian if you need assistance.
- Send a copy of your assignment to the librarian
for your department in advance. Library collections are constantly
changing and what was available in previous semesters may have changed.
The librarians will also have your assignment in mind when selecting new
materials.
- Give students the assignment in writing and ask them to take it
with them to the library. Librarians can be more helpful to students
who are confused about terminology or who have forgotten to bring the assignment
with them.
- Create real-life projects that encourage students to find and apply
information to real circumstances. E.g. “Construct a demographic model
of your neighborhood that includes socioeconomic data and municipal services.
Discuss the relationship between the data and available services.”
- Avoid scavenger hunts. Librarians often must give students
the answers.
- Use clear language to define the task: Does your use of “library
computer” mean the online catalog, a database, or something else?
Do your students understand what “peer-reviewed
journal” and “primary sources” mean in your discipline? If you
recommend specific books and journals, write out their full titles.
Planning the Library Resources:
- Require a variety of resources including reference books, journals,
newspapers, subject encyclopedias, library databases, videos, and more.
- Teach evaluation strategies
and require that students evaluate the quality of all resources, particularly
web sites.
- Address plagiarism. Show students how easy it is for instructors
to locate their sources in books, databases, and on the Internet.
- Stress the fact that research takes time and encourage students
to start early. Good quality web-based resources are not always faster to
find and use than books and articles. Or the "perfect" book
may be checked out until next week or located at another library.
- Emphasize the use of SCC library resources. If you require
the use of materials at CSUS or UC Davis, be sure your students understand
this. Librarians can help your students look up materials in off-campus
catalogs, provide maps and directions, or assist with interlibrary loan
when appropriate.
- Avoid giving a large class the same topic. All the books
may soon be checked out. Allow variations on the theme, with instructor
approval.
- Put limited materials on reserve or eReserve
if several students need the same item. This includes textbooks,
sample tests, readings, and private copies. Contact Yolanda Escobar (escobay@scc.losrios.edu)
or bring materials to the circulation desk in advance of assignments.
- Don’t assume that students have used a college library. Encourage
your students to attend a drop-in
orientation at their convenience or schedule a
course-related
library instruction for your class using the online
request form. Contact Stephanie McDonald (mcdonas@sc.losrios.edu)
if you need assistance. (Faculty can sign up for drop-in orientations, too
- get flex credit!)
Alternatives to the Traditional Research Paper:
- Develop an annotated bibliography on a topic.
- Compare and contrast discussions of the same topic in a scholarly journal
and a popular magazine.
- Identify and analyze key issues in a discipline, or compare the way two
different disciplines handle the same topic.
- Many additional creative library assignments can fit your course goals.
The Collins Memorial Library at University of Puget Sounds offers this provocative
list of library-related assignments:
http://library.ups.edu/instruct/assign.htm.
Internet and Web Sources:
If you tell students not to use the Internet, do explain the difference between
“free” Internet sources and the library’s subscription
databases, such as Proquest and CQ Researcher. The SCC
library databases are accessed via the Internet but they contain authoritative
full-text articles from print magazines, newspapers, journals, and reference
books. Library databases provide first-class research content.
In addition, many free web sites (e.g. www.census.gov,
findlaw.org) contain reliable content.
The librarians are also developing Web
Subject Guides to provide students with quick and easy access to reliable
web sites.
Databases
