Self-Paced Library Instruction

Access a Journal or News Article
Rather than providing students with copies of articles that the library owns, teach them to retrieve articles themselves. Having students access their own material familiarizes them with the library’s resources, helps them understand that not all research material is free and accessible through Google, and provides the library with statistics needed for making purchasing decisions. 

Reading: Finding an Article Using a Citation

Activity
Provide students with the citation to an article that the library owns and that is required reading for your course. Ask them to obtain the article and read it critically for classroom discussion or a writing exercise. Remind them that this item is not available for free on Google or elsewhere.  

Access an eBook
Rather than providing students with scans of book chapters that the library owns (which can potentially result in copyright violations), teach them to retrieve books and book chapters themselves. Having students access a book themselves familiarizes them with the library's resources, helps them understand that not all research material is free and accessible through Google, and provides the library with statistics needed for making purchasing decisions. 

Reading: Finding and Using eBooks

Preliminary Research
Students should learn how to begin acquiring background knowledge about an unfamiliar topic, build a keyword list, learn where they can get ideas for a research question and conduct exploratory research. 

Reading: Background Information

Activity
Compare a Wikipedia entry with information from Credo Reference. Have them answer in writing:

• What new or interesting information did you learn from each source?
• What differences or progression did you notice about the way information was presented from one source to the next?
• Would either of these resources have been sufficient on their own? Why or what not?  

Select a Database
A general purpose database can overwhelm students with results that are unrelated to the topic they have in mind. Using a subject-specific database can achieve more focused results.

Reading: Subject Specific Databases

Have students identify 3 subject-specific databases (other than EDS Discovery Service) that address their topic or the course's theme. Students should do an identical search in EDS and one of the subject specific databases they identify and compare results in writing by describing  the type of material found and a summary of the content of a few items in each search. Write or discuss in class whether the databases they identified would really be useful/appropriate and why or why not.

Distinguishing Among Source Types
Students often have a difficult time discerning what type of source they are using, particularly in an online environment, and may therefore use sources that are inappropriate to their needs (e.g. using a book review instead of a book, or a magazine instead of a scholarly journal). Learning to distinguish among source types will help them select the best material for their projects.

Reading: Source Types

Show students sample citations of edited books, scholarly journals, magazines, book reviews etc. and ask them to identify key differences.