The Reader

Spring 2006  Page 5

Do you sometimes wonder where your students are?  Well, we're happy to say that over 4,000 of them were in the library every day last week!  Yup, the gate count is through the roof.  And some of those students are finding books; more than 5000 books crossed the circulation counter during the first two weeks of school.  Keep your students coming; we're excited about their progress.  

• If you plan to bring a class to the library, even if you don’t expect to need our help, please call ahead to let us know (558-2461, reference desk).  Often your students do need help, and we would like to be prepared to assist them.  We can also make suggestions about computer use and best times of day to visit.  

• Schedule a customized library instruction session and bring your class to the library.  Instructors report big improvements in the quality of student research assignments when they include this library hour in the syllabus.

• Add this note to your syllabus:  The SCC library may have a copy of the textbook for this class available at the reserve desk for short term loan.  Find the call number of the book in LOIS (the library catalog), then request the book at the library circulation desk.  Ask a librarian for help! Send your students to the library to sign up for a drop-in library orientation.  Giving them extra credit seems to do the trick.

• We have a web page devoted to helping you Create Great Library Assignments.  Check it out.

• Do you need assignment topics?  Or do you want to know where to send your students to find them?  The library has several good sources for choosing topics.  A couple of our favorites are Issues and Controversies (Reference JK1 .I77; also known as The Red Binders), the CQ Researcher database with its "Browse by Topic" feature, and of course LOIS, the library catalog.  Ask us how to put these tools to work for you.
• Ask a librarian for help!