First Year Students UWG1101 and Ingram Library INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO LIBRARY RESOURCES THROUGH GOOGLE BOOKS AND SCHOLAR DIANE FULKERSON INGRAM LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA GEORGIA CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION LITERACY SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

What is UWG 1101? Class for all incoming freshman Taught by faculty and staff across campus Intended to introduce them to college life Most students enroll in class Each instructor includes a library component Program started three years ago in an effort to improve retention, progression and graduation Primary goal is to develop self-directed and responsible learners All incoming freshman enroll in a classroom or mentor based program at orientation—they are required to enroll in one of the two programs There is a textbook and learning outcomes for the class This semester they are offering 40 sections of the course We started offering the Google Book/Scholar class as an alternative from library tours and the dreaded scavenger hunt

Ingram Library and UWG1101 Initially not much library involvement Fall 2008 Google class offered First library UWG1101 class Collaborative effort to develop course material First class taught within two weeks Some initial problems Previous involvement limited to tours or a scavenger hunt limited number of the classes participated Google Book and Scholar class first time library offered a BI session specifically designed for UWG1101 Jean Cook designed the handout for the class and I designed the in-class exercise Initial problems included the fact not all databases were linked to Google Scholar this took about two weeks to resolve

Google Books and Scholar Class How to navigate library homepage Set up scholar preferences Default to UWG Ingram Library Google Scholar/Books exercise Search strategies for Google Books and Scholar Finding full text articles Books at UWG vs. another library In the 50 minute session we covered the topics listed here Exercise designed to help them find articles and books at Ingram Library through Google Scholar and Books Provided them with opportunity to learn basic search strategies At the start of each class students appeared skeptical that we were encouraging them to use Google Provided students with an opportunity to move beyond basic Google search Introduced students to interlibrary loan and GIL Express or at a library near their home Effectively using preview option for a book Books they can download—no longer copyright protected

Connecting it to Information Literacy? Beyond basic Google search screen Non-librarian search interface Develop better search strategies Find scholarly materials Better search results make better choices Connects to course objective of identifying and utilizing academic resources Easier search interface—students understood how and where to enter search terms—terminology they could understand Allowed us to show them how to find additional keywords or subject terms once they found a database article Easier search interface led to better search results—students were not frustrated by lack of results Using Google Books/Scholar allowed them to make better choices for materials because they moved beyond the basic website they normally would select

Outcomes Taught 15 classes with help from two colleagues Feedback from UWG1101 students and instructors Used something familiar to students Provided easy access to library materials Used “one minute” paper for assessment Building on last year’s results The feedback from students and faculty was overwhelmingly positive All the instructors who participated said they learned new search techniques and strategies Even if students could not remember how to find library homepage, link to databases or the catalog they would remember how to access Google Scholar or books Handout provided them with an overview of how to search So far this semester a little over half of the UWG instructors are bringing their class to the library Many of the instructors who attended last year’s class are bringing their current class to the library

Additional Resources National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition Google Services at UWG FYE: Connecting First-Year College Students with the Library UWG First Year Program

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