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Suggestions for Planning and Creating Effective Library Assignments
- Check with the Library in advance of the assignment to assure
availability of, and access to required resources.
The online environment is especially fluid and can change from one day to
the next.
- Test the assignment beforehand.
Try to put yourself in the students’ shoes with their experience and
perspective.
- Create learner-centered assignments.
- Don’t assume that students know the basics.
Many CSUF students have no prior experience using a library or library
sources. The Web is most likely the first place they go to for information.
- Inform the students of the purpose of the research assignment.
- Describe the specifics of the assignment.
Length, format for references (MLA, APA), acceptable types of sources
(books, journal articles, web)
- Allow for incremental and continual improvement.
Allow students to choose a topic early in the semester. Have them turn in a
bibliography of initial sources. Check the appropriateness of the sources
selected (this could also help prevent plagiarism). Have them turn in a
revised topic statement based on consultation of initial sources. This
emphasizes the process of incorporating new information into the student’s
knowledge base.
- Topic Selection.
Students often choose “hot topics” when conducting research, and may
have difficulty abstracting a research question from a current news event
i.e.,
“I need to do a paper on animal rights.” Before students select their
topics, consider an exercise in which students define a research question
for a number of news headlines.
- Provide examples.
Many students may not understand the distinction between popular and
scholarly sources. If you require students to use articles from peer
reviewed journals, provide examples in the assigned readings, refer to them,
and discuss the author’s credentials, and elements of the research
process.
- Student Use of the Web
The use of the web is expanding, and library materials are increasingly
web-based. Students will come to the reference desk and state that they are
not allowed to use web sources, yet many full text journals are available on
the web through our library subscriptions. Be precise in your instructions
for student use of the web for research, and reinforce the distinction
between such reliable library sources and general “internet” searching.
- Schedule a library instruction session.
Session should be scheduled close to the time of need, when the student
begins the research process.
To be meaningful, the library session should be tied to an assignment that
is relevant to the course; they need to apply what they have learned during
the session.
Library assignments that only take students through the procedural steps of
using the library, without asking them to read, analyze, and apply the
information, fall short.
Library Assignment Suggestions
- Create a reading packet
The model for this assignment is the annotated book of readings with which
most students are familiar. In this case, however, rather than being given
the anthology, they are asked to compile it themselves. The assignment can
limit the acceptable content to scholarly articles written within the last
ten years, or it can be broadened to include popular articles, chapters or
excerpts from books, subject encyclopedia articles, web sites, or older
materials of particular merit.
Students should be asked to write an introduction to the anthology that
would display an overall understanding of the subject. In addition, each
item should be described, and an explanation given as to why it is included.
The assignment could also require a bibliography of items considered for
inclusion.
- Compare scholarly and popular resources on a topic
Find a reference to a study from a newspaper or popular magazine, such as
Time, Psychology Today, Life, etc. Then have students find the actual study
in a scholarly journal and write a several paragraphs comparing the popular
sources with the original research.
- Evaluate and Compare Websites
Use "Six
Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites" or have the students develop course
or topic specific web evaluation criteria. Compare sites.
Visitors from April 18, 2001
to present: 
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