Instructional Services librarians are available to meet with faculty who are designing or revising student assignments which require the use of the library. This collaboration helps to generate assignments which refer to appropriate sources owned by the libraries and, if possible, to make arrangements within the library to accomodate the needs of the assignment. Call Instructional Services at (765) 285-8017 to set up an appointment to meet with a librarian.

Here are some suggestions to keep in mind when developing library assignments:

Set objectives and make them clear to students.

• OBJECTIVES are statements of what the students should be able to do as a result of the assignment.
  
• EXAMPLE: Students should be able to identify relevant current periodical articles on a chosen topic.

Teach research strategies where appropriate.

Research strategies often seem obvious to experienced researchers but are generally unknown to students. If students are inexperienced researchers, breaking down the assignment into research strategy steps will help them accomplish your stated objective.

EXAMPLE:

1. Define your topic using an encyclopedia article or textbook chapter for background information.
2. Develop a list of relevant subject headings and keyword searches to use in WebCat.
3. Use WebCat to find books on your topic.
4. Use an appropriate periodical index to find more recent information in magazines and journals.

Give students opportunities to reflect on their research strategies. Allow them to think critically about what they are doing.

Provide students with resource lists.

Resource lists give students a starting point by listing specific information sources or types of sources for a particular assignment.

Bracken Library has some ready-made lists of reference sources in various subject areas that can be used for this purpose. See Instructional Services' Research Guides.

Consider alternative designs for the assignment.

Here are some possible examples:

• Students prepare an annotated bibliography of information sources on their topics.
  
• Identify a significant event or publication in your discipline. Have students find out more about the people involved by consulting a variety of library resources.
  
• Students, working in groups, prepare a guide that introduces others to information sources in a subject field.
  
• Students analyze the content, tone, style, and audience of three journals and/or web sites basic to one particular discipline.
  
• Students compare how a given topic is treated in several different reference sources, both print and electronic.

Avoid these common problems:

• An entire class looking for one piece of information or researching the same specific topic
• Students working from incomplete/incorrect information
• Requiring students to use materials the library does not own
• Impossibly vague topics assigned to students
• Students given obscure factual questions and told to find the answers

Resentment toward rather than appreciation of library research is the likely result of these assignments. Library assignments are more meaningful if students use the information they find for an authentic task related to the topics covered in the course.

Consult with librarians and use their services.

Contact Instructional Services, BL 101, (765)285-8017, for:

• INSTRUCTION for classes regarding information sources and research methods;
• CONSULTATION in designing assignments, determining appropriate research strategies, and ensuring that needed materials are available; and
• PRINTED AIDS such as resource lists of reference sources.

Contact the Periodicals/Reserve Service, BL 111, (765)285-5141, to:

• PUT ON RESERVE copies of materials likely to be needed by large numbers of students.

Acknowledgment: Based on a model by John Kupersmith, General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin.