Using the Library: Getting Started

• Set up an appointment with the librarian to give your class a tour of the library. To make the tour more meaningful,

  have students read Web Appendix B before the tour, and

  give them an assignment that will require them to conduct library research, such as asking them to find and summarize two articles by B. F. Skinner, summarize a recently published journal article, or find as many articles as they can that were published by faculty at your institution.

• Take advantage of some excellent articles that contain tips about techniques to help students become more proficient at using the library, such as

  
  

  • Joswick, K. E. (1994). Getting the most from PsycLit Recommendations for searching. Teaching of Psychology, 21, 49-53.

  • Ware, M. E. & Brewer, C. L. (Eds.). (1988). Handbook for teaching statistics and research methods. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • General standards for Information Literacy (scroll down to--or do a search for--the heading "Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Librarians")
  • Information literacy standards for Science and Engineering/Technology (from the American Library Association).
  • Use the following lesson plan to teach students Boolean searching in an interesting and effective manner.

  • Use the following lesson plan to teach students to be critical of information on the web. 

   

• make the case that there is more to library research than on-line research by either assigning or lecturing on the following article.

• direct students to useful references such as
  • APA´s excellent tips on how to do a literature search.
  • Megan Bradley's tips for doing online searches
  • Professor Wolfe's guide to PsycLit
  • Tips on finding primary sources from the UC Berkeley Library

  • Tips on evaluating Internet resources

   

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