DOs
Finding documentation in a research library setting is a challenging, if not daunting, task for most undergraduates. Careful attention to your research assignments can make the research process a positive and useful experience.

• Work with a librarian to develop and implement an effective assignment. 

Designing good assignments is a labor intensive activity. Working with a librarian in your subject area can provide you with extra support and resources to ensure that your assignments are designed to help make your students successful researchers. Librarians can be wonderful "debuggers," making sure that the research component of your assignment is doable and that there aren't any unforeseen road-blocks in the way. 

For a list of librarians in various subject areas use the Libraries' Selector List or contact us online at InfoPoint and we'll connect you up with the right person.

• Clarify and state your objectives, to yourself and your students. 

What do you expect students to learn about information sources as the result of this assignment, and how do these objectives fit with your course objectives? The national Information Literacy Compentency Standards will help by articulating measurable outcomes for building information literacy skills.

When creating your research objectives be careful not to make assumptions about common experience or skill levels using libraries. For example, are you assuming that your students will know to look for scholarly articles for your annotated bibliography assignment? Will they know how to identify a scholarly journal? Do they know what an index is and why it is useful to use them?

• Use library guides and course support tools to supplement your teaching whenever possible. 

The more specific you can be in regards to where to go in the library system or online, and what to do there, the more effective your assignments will be. The University Libraries have created a number of online tools to help you:
-> CourseLib is a customized web page for your course or assignment that allows librarians to quickly and easily pull together library services, resources, and tutorials that meet the needs of your students.
-> QuickStart pulls together key resources into a pathfinder geared to a specific discipline.
-> QuickStudy: A Library Research Guide, is an online tutorial that teaches students how to do research so that you don't have to.

There are also many other guides written by library staff for virtually all disciplinary and cross-disciplinary areas, as well as many on current topics. In addition, we can make available multiple copies of guides outlining how to effectively search all of the major databases available to the public. Check our Libraries-Wide Guides page and/or contact InfoPoint for further information. Librarians are also available to hold research workshops around your course schedule. 

• Make sure that the library can support the assignment requirements. 

Avoid assigning or signing off on topics that are so current, specialized or "localized" that little or no information is available. For example, for popular culture topics such as music or concert reviews, public libraries generally offer a better collection of news and "lifestyle" magazines than do research libraries.

If you have questions about the "fit" of a particular topic to a research library collection, call your subject selector or contact Infopoint.

• Emphasize "civility"! 

You may be asking your students to use the same set of resources for your assignment. That means that all class members should be reminded that they are responsible for keeping materials accessible. Reference materials shouldn't be stranded at photocopy machines, in carrels or in the stacks. Ask your students to keep materials close by the shelf where they are filed.

• Check your assignment before re-using it to see if the web page, index, terminal, guide rack, etc. is still available and in the same place you've identified it as being. 

The library and our web page is a "living" space in the sense that materials are constantly being shifted, reclassed, undergoing title changes and the like. Stay on top of your assignment by periodically checking in with your subject selector or with the online Infopoint Service to ensure that any directions you've given within the assignment are still valid.

• Consider a scaffolded approach to creating library assignments.  

Many large research papers are overwhelming to students because they involve many steps in the research process that they are either unskilled in or unconfident about. By creating a scaffolded approach, you can provide help and direction to students at more steps in the process. There are many ways to do this. You may, for example, ask students to hand in an annotated bibliography prior to the paper's due date to ensure that they are finding quality sources for their topic. You might also give them a worksheet asking them to identify several indexes and search strategies they might use. Collaboration with a librarian is useful at this point if you would like some support during this process. 

• DO NOT assume your students have a uniform level of research skills. 

A few direct questions in class about experience with online catalogs, computerized indexes or a discipline-based bibliography will give you some sense of the general level of experience, as well as allow you to gauge which students might function as team or group leaders. Asking will also help determine your objectives for the library aspect of the research assignment. 
• DO NOT give students a sketchy or faulty reference to an item and expect the student or the library staff to figure out what you are up to.

If you must give an erroneous citation for the purpose of illustrating that many researchers perform sloppy research, tell them specifically what you are doing and what you wish to see corrected. 
• DO NOT refer students to specific journals or magazines for browsing, unless it will serve a particular purpose.

Browsing is not the best approach to most undergraduate esearch. Students will have more success if you recommend a particular index or abstract, identify it's call number or online location, and describe the index's scope. Browsing may work at the graduate level, where the researcher is aware of the core journals in her field, but not for pre-majors working on current topics. 
• DO NOT send an entire class to the library in search of the same items.

The "scavenger" hunt can work under tightly controlled conditions, but more often students perceive them as busywork. Unless hunts are focused, brief, and require the student to explore the found source and reflect on it use, they tend to sour students on additional library use. 

If you have additional questions or would like help constructing a library exercise or assignment, please call your subject selector or contact the Libraries' User Education Coordinator, Jerilyn Veldof, (612) 624-1529, jveldof@umn.edu.