I use this workshop outline as a starting place for classes who are working on the disciplinary literacies assignment, particularly if one of the stated learning outcomes is for students to identify different types of sources. The focus is giving students opportunities to explore a scholarly source, and to get acquainted with some of the scholarly conversation.
All times approximate, based on engagement of the class, student questions, etc.
(Optional - can expand time for searching instead)
Bring up class assignment and discuss how it will connect to the library workshop
Start with thinking about a situation in which you needed to find information recently.
Describe the situation to the person sitting next to you. Share 2-3 examples with the class
Things to draw out:
In this class, we are going to talk about how academic research is different than casual research, about different types of information you might need for different situations, then look more closely at a couple of those types of information to see how they function.
Part of the purpose of the disciplinary literacies assignment is to get you thinking about how different kinds of information function in your field, and also how to find those types of information.
Project short links to these two articles:
Look at two different kinds of information
Ask students for observation or compare/contrast about the following elements of each source:
Do a check on:
What kinds of things could you learn from a scholarly article? What could you learn from the popular article?
http://browzine.com/libraries/118
Use the Browse Subjects feature to find journals for your major or field. Find an article that is surprising, or makes you curious to know more
What kinds of things are professors writing?
Think about what characterizes the writing - do the topics surprise you? Purpose of a scholarly articles vs something like an encyclopedia article. You won’t get the whole picture from the scholarly article because it’s concerned with a narrow area of study.
Link back to earlier discussion of the parts of scholarly articles and how they function.
This also gives students a sense that journals are collections of articles/how they function as a means of communication.
Do search keyword strategy based on the article they identified in BrowZine. What keywords would you use if you were looking for popular article? What about for more scholarly articles?
Show how to use facets and do different kinds of searches in the article search/Discuss library Article Search mechanics
This will be a pretty quick demonstration. Emphasize that each topic is different, and circulate to provide individual help and pointers.
Reminder:
Talk to a librarian if run into weird search screens/can’t find relevant information
Librarians can help brainstorming where to search and what search terms to use
Can also talk to a peer research assistant in one of the engagement centers
Emphasize that it’s hard to anticipate all challenges with each topic, so it’s a good idea to come for help when you’re actively involved in the search process.
Created by Emilia Marcyk. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License