Christine

**Christine Swartz ~ Library Search**

Course: Information Literacy ~ LIB 110 Task: Skills activity to learn how to access library online catalog and databases Author: Christine Swartz Method: Asynchronous This assignment will be submitted through your college email account and is due one week from today.
 * Instructions:**

Each of you has been given a topic to research. For the first part of this assignment you will log onto the college library website, access the library catalog and search for books on your assigned topic. You will choose three books and list the following information for each: title, author, location, call number and status.

Each of you was also given the database passwords. For the second part of your assignment you will log onto the college library website, access the reference databases and search for articles on your assigned topic. You will choose three articles from the list of search results and provide the following information for each: title, author, source (name of the magazine/journal or newspaper), and date.

A portion of becoming information literate is the ability to access information. This activity is created to familiarize students with the resources available to them in the library. The students are introduced to the online library catalog, database searching and become familiar with the many sources contained within them. This activity also introduces the students to the difference between the Internet and sources from the databases. The skills the students develop in this class with be beneficial to them throughout their college days and into their life-long learning years.
 * Activity Author’s Notes:**


 * Critique of Christine's Information Literacy Activity by Linda Morris Freshwater **

Beginning with the necessity to learn how to log in to the library website, this library research activity provides much needed research support for all disciplines. This activity could be incorporated into any online course. The ability to navigate and integrate information has become a new form of literacy.

I also appreciate the short time (one week) that is allotted to accomplish the activity. This brief assignment covers searching for both books and journal articles. It might also include videos and ebooks. Overall, it is a very clear, matter of fact, and attainable learning assignment which accomplishes its goals. Thank you, I will use it in my online classes.

Feedback on Christine Swartz’ week two wiki entry by Howard Huth. Christine, I agree with Linda’s feedback. You might also consider asking the students to include a summary of the book taken from the catalog description. This would ensure that the students have read the summary and determined that the book actually relates to the topic. I may have the cart before the horse, but if you have provided a discussion of search strategies by this point in the course, the students could include their search terms and strategies for narrowing the database results. When I did my internship at IVC, I conducted several orientations for speech and writing classes where I presented simple catalog and database searches. Like Linda, I can see the possibilities for extracting parts of our library courses and turning them into online seminars or orientations. Instructors in discipline could assign them as mandatory or extra credit components of their courses, whether those courses are online or F2F. Howard

I have to second Linda's comments. It's a seemingly simple, straight-forward assignment that introduces students to useful resources and lends itself to any discipline. I can see it as a first step in a series of information literacy and source evaluation assignments, maybe a similar search outside of the library next. [I wonder about submitting it via email. Wouldn't submitting it in Blackboard (an Assignment, perhaps?) make keeping track of who's done the assignment and grading it be easier?] Thank you for sharing--I can see myself using such an assignment in both online and f2f classes.

Christine, This is activity is very straight-forward and focused – very nice for developing a particular set of defined skills. For your final project I’d like you to include this as one example of “independent work” because this does not involve student interaction. Because of your subject matter, it may be more difficult for you to think up “collaborative” types of activities. Let’s talk about whether you see those even appropriate for the course you are developing.

LeeAnn