Today's students are increasingly adept with technology, but they have little experience evaluating electronic resources. Students often don't realize that there is information available that is not found by the popular search engines.
Jackson Library's First-Year Instruction program helps by bringing incoming students into the library and introducing them to some basic but important research concepts and tools. The goals of the program are to improve the quality of students' research and to increase their ability to find, analyze and evaluate information independently.
Research skills instruction is provided by librarians through hands-on sessions held during your regular class time in the library. An hour-long session cannot answer all of your students' questions, but it provides them with a starting point. The session will hopefully leave them feeling more comfortable asking for help.
The class will include some or all of the following:
For mor information please see our Objectives for Library Instruction: First-Year Undergraduates
It is usually best to schedule your session just a few weeks before the assignment or paper is due. If students come too early in the semester, before they have any real need for the information, they are less attentive and retain less. If the session is held too late, however, there may not be enough time for students to put what they have learned to good use.
Contact Amy Harris to set up your session. Please schedule your class at least two weeks in advance. Since we tailor each session to your students' needs, we need that time to prepare the most effective class for you! Please be prepared to offer alternative dates, in case of schedule conflicts. The hands-on sessions are held in the Citi Lab in Jackson Library.
Please plan to attend along with your students! They are more motivated when you are there, especially if you participate by adding comments and answering questions about their assignment. Also, you can learn a lot about your students' information-seeking behaviors. And finally, since new resources are constantly added to the Library's collections, you just might learn something!
For more information about the First-Year Research Skills Instruction Program, please contact Amy Harris by email or phone at 256-0275.
