Designing Effective Library Assignments

Below you will find information on library assignments, which are papers or projects that rely upon any of the resources available within a library.

An effective library assignment should:

► Make students aware of the variety of resources available to them through the library and teach them how to choose those sources best suited for their research.

► Distinguish the differences between popular and scholarly sources of information.

► Emphasize evaluation of resources for quality of information.

► Reinforce ethical scholarship utilizing proper citing of practices.

► Stimulate critical thinking about the topic through the evaluation of resources.

 

Suggestions for creating library assignments

► Always give assignments clearly and in writing. Students tend to take things literally, so try to define your exact expectations for the assignment. Clarify its purpose and what you anticipate to receive.

► Avoid ambiguous language. Do "Web Resources" mean the entire Internet, Databases, or Web Sites that are not.com's? Do scholarly articles mean only articles from peer-reviewed journals? Be sure to clearly define your terminology and give examples if necessary.

► Don't assume your students are familiar with research strategies. Surprising as this may seem, many of your students may not be familiar with basic research steps. Initially try to get a sense of what research experience your students possess and develop assignments according to their needs.

► Create assignments connected with class content and projects. If they are connected to larger projects or papers, your students will put more effort into the assignment.

► If you are requiring students to use a specific resource, make sure of the following: 1. The Library currently owns or has access to the resource. 2. If in print, the item is listed on reserve. This allows all your students to have equal access.

► Avoid scavenger hunts. Many times these assignments are not connected to the content of the class and students can easily cheat on them. If yo do want to crate an effective scavenger hunt for your class, please consult a librarian for assistance in relating the assignment to course content.

► Give a copy of the assignment to the reference librarians. Since many students come to the reference desk for research help, it is useful for the librarians to receive an assignment beforehand, so we can provide better and faster service for your students. Email us at libref@usi.edu.

► Come in for a library instruction class! The librarians will be happy to help your students with their research by demonstrating databases, suggesting reference sources, and teaching them how to utilize the catalog. We can also talk to them about popular and scholarly sources, evaluating resources, citations, or any other research topic. For more information about instructional classes, contact Johanna MacKay, Instructional Services Librarian at jmmackay@usi.edu.

 

Sample ideas for library assignments

    Ask your students to:

► Prepare a bibliography of books, articles, and web resources with evaluative annotations. These annotations can explain how they found the specific sources. their evaluation of them, and why they were chosen.

► Research a controversial topic using a variety of sources. Discuss in class how the different sources treat the topic and why this might be the case.

► Search for a specific topic using both commercial search engine(s) and database(s). Have them compare and contrast their results from the different searches.

► Research a particular company or organization in preparation for a hypothetical interview.

► Submit a log with their research paper that documents how they went about researching their topic including the searching, evaluating, and choosing of resources