UAS Faculty have defined six competencies in which baccalaureate degree students will be assessed periodically during their studies at UAS. One of these competencies is Information Literacy, defined as:
As a professor, you are charged with providing your students with opportunities to improve their skills as seekers and users of information. Many UAS Ketchikan students are not information literate when they arrive on campus and do not know how to locate relevant information or how to think critically about the information they find. A well-designed assignment can teach students valuable research skills and improve the quality of their papers. Naturally, these skills will apply not only to a specific assignment but also can be applied to other information-seeking experiences throughout the students’ academic careers and will encourage lifelong information literacy and research skills.
It is crucial that students understand the difference between using a search engine on the Internet to conduct their research and using the article databases paid for by the university, and many do not.
Students need to learn when it is best to use which resources, such as reference materials, periodical articles, books, the Internet, etc., when conducting research and how to evaluate their findings. They need to learn that they need to be much more selective when using a search engine on the Internet. In addition, giving students a positive initial introduction to the library will affect their willingness to use the library in the future.
SOME KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL ASSIGNMENTS:
IDEAS FOR SUCCESSFUL LIBRARY ASSIGNMENTS. ASK YOUR STUDENTS TO:
Quote and cite sources in a way that gives proper credit and avoids plagiarism.
Create a research strategy by:
1. Defining a topic by using an encyclopedia for background information.
2. Developing a list of relevant keywords and phrases to use in searching.
3. Using the library catalog to find books on their topic.
4. Using article databases to find most recent information in magazines and journals.
5. Using Internet search engines selectively to locate authoritative, high-quality websites.
Prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic of their choice.
Write an abstract of a journal article.
Find and compare a popular magazine article with a scholarly article on the same topic.
Research specific issues and participate in a panel discussion or debate.
Select a topic and compare how that topic is treated in two to five different sources, including a popular and a scholarly journal, an encyclopedia, and current books.
Some of the text above is adapted from: "Fishing for Success: Faculty/Librarian Collaboration Nets Effective Library Assignments” by Caroline Gilson and Stephanie Michel. In Making the Grade: Academic Libraries and Student Success, edited by Maurie Caitlin Kelly and Andrea Kross. Chicago: ACRL, 2002
Research Guides by Egan Library | University of Alaska Southeast are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0