Library Assignment Creation Assistance | Tips for Designing Effective Library Assignments

Library/Research Assignment Creation Assistance

The Research Librarians at Staley Library are happy to provide you with assistance in constructing research/library assignments for your courses.

The purpose of this service is to assist you in creating assignments that integrate the library's resources into your classes. Our goals are twofold: to help students gain information literacy skills and comfort in using the library, and to assist faculty in furthering their familiarity with the library and its ever-changing resources. Each year brings changes in both the resources available to us and the interfaces for using them. It can be very difficult to keep abreast of what is available.

In addition to databases and electronic resources, there are also continuing additions to our print sources. A number of substantial new titles, including several large subject encyclopedias, have been added to the Reference Collection in the past few years. There may be items included that are applicable to your course of which you are unaware.

The Research/Library Assisgnment Assistance will:

• Make sure the information can be found via one of our available databases.
• Confirm sources listed on your assignment are available at Staley Library.
• Test the library research portion of the assignment to assist you in developing a successful library research assignment.

Whether you are integrating or creating new library assignments, or have assignments already constructed, we can give you an idea of how successful they will be before your students attempt to complete them. A successful assignment will avoid unanswerable research questions and frustrated students and will produce great results.

Please contact the librarian liaison for your subject area for assistance.

Library Assignment Creation Assistance | Tips for Designing Effective Library Assignments

Tips for Designing Effective Research Assignments

When designing a library or research-based assignment keep in mind the following list of tips for creating assignments that are as effective as possible. Assignments that are not well constructed can lead to high frustration levels in students and a negative view of using the library. We have seen many excellent library assignments and we would like to encourage more of these!

Do:

• Clearly state the objectives and purpose of the assignment so that students understand what they are supposed to learn as a result of completing the assignment.
• Discuss with your students the kind of material they are expected to locate. Are they looking for articles in magazines, scholarly journals, editorial commentary, etc.?
• Clarify terms that may not be understood by students. Do they know what an abstract is? An annotated bibliography?
• Allow ample time for the students to complete the assignment.
• Place an item on Reserves for the assignment if an entire class will be looking for the same thing. Unfortunately, students often stash such items somewhere in the stacks for their own personal use. Placing it on Reserves will ensure all students in the class have equal access to the item.
• Emphasize respect for library materials. We have had instances of students destroying materials to create collages for classes in the past. Consequences for such actions are harsh.
• Check your titles if you provide resource lists for your students. Sometimes our memories don't serve us well as we think and it is possible to forget and exact title, or combine two titles into a new, nonexistant title!
• Share copies of difficult or detailed assignements with the Research Librarians. We are better able to help your students if we are aware of the particulars of the assignment.
• Refer students to the Librarians if they have any questions or problems. We are here to help!
• Schedule a research instruction session if you feel one is appropriate.
• Complete the assignment yourself *before you give it to the students* to make sure it is "doable."

Don't:

• Make assumptions about students' research ability and information retrieval skills, particularly lower division students. How likely is it that they know the difference between a magazine and a journal? An online journal and a website?
• Send students on searches for obscure facts or scavenger hunts. These assignments are extremely time consuming and make library use seem unnecessarily difficult. Often it is the librarian, not the student, that ends up locating the information.
• Assign materials that aren't owned by Staley Library. If the library needs to add something to its collection to support your course, please let you appropriate librarian liaison know before the semester begins!

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