Tips & Tricks to make your life easier Instruction Materials that Support this Teaching Strategy #2 The Library & You Okay! Here we go: Introduce myself, obviously. In one iteration, I gave out a blank ½ sheet of paper and asked them to write what they already thought/knew/felt about research/the library, etc., and asked them to keep that sheet to the side, as we would use it again at the end of the session. This exercise was adapted from something Dr. Jeff Liles did in an assessment program he did that I attended. I thought it would be a good way to get qualitative info on assessment in the sessions….only worked some of the time. If you want examples, I have ‘em and can scan some for you. Just an fyi, this presentation was for a Family Life & Ed class, so the graphics are all preschool looking…but funny. Tips & Tricks to make your life easier Tracey Mayfield FCS Librarian CDFS 419 9/22/08

Today: We will Discuss what we want to learn Learn those things Hopefully have fun in the process! Again, pretty self explanatory…. I would say that we will be learning about the library and how the library helps and what we provide to get them through their classes and assignments….something like that.

What do you want to learn? Break into groups Each person list the things they want to learn Group ranks list One person from each group comes up and lists items on the agenda up front I would then say “okay, listening to a librarian talk about the library is worse than watching paint dry, so I am going to ask you what you want to learn today.” I then go over how they will break into groups and what they need to do in a little more detail. I give them 5-7 minutes total. After about 2 minutes, I say “If you have any deep seated, burning questions about research, the library, librarians, etc, this is your chance.” The agenda is then created and I take a look at it.

Searching Key to getting what you want Good search = good results Bad search = wanting to kill oneself Tips: And Or Truncation (), “”, etc… Inevitably, there is at least one (but usually more) question about searching. Narrowing, using the right keywords, how to get what you want, etc. I do a bit about searching and then say, “Again, I can sit up here and tell you how to do it, but showing you how to do it is much better.” I then give out a searching exercise. I do the exercise in Ebsco’s Academic Search Elite. I have created 10 different versions of it to tailor it to my departments. Then depending on the size of the class and if we are in a hands-on room or not I either do it with them (hands on) or I call up four volunteers to the front of the room (non hands on) or if the class is too big, or we are short on time, I just do it…but in either case, I walk them through the results and why we got what we got. By the end of the exercise, they understand everything on the slide.

COAST Aka: The library catalog Key to finding stuff we have (mainly books) Key to many services we offer Again, there is always a question on finding books. It varies, but it is always there. I preface the next few slides by saying that when we did the searching exercise, that illustrated the language part of searching. Now we need to address the “where” of searching. I start with the catalog, called COAST. Do a demo. The demo varies depending on time and type of classroom.

Databases Online tool Finds SCHOLARLY & RELIABLE articles and article info Many full text articles, but not ALL USE THE SFX BUTTON!!!!! Always start here for article research Next up, finding articles. Sometimes, depending on time, I explain the difference in the types of articles (magazine, newspaper, journal, etc). Demo of Academic Search Elite, searching, using the limiting functions, getting results, finding the full text, etc.

Google Crawls through the web to find web sites 99.999% not scholarly Reliability is an issue too Great for certain things, but not scholarly research This is really short. Usually, just that while Google isn’t Satan, it usually doesn’t work for scholarly research. In an older iteration, at the end of my schpeal of Google, I handed out the matrix exercise. I have since stopped using it, but someone else may think it is helpful.

Citing…What the *^%$@? Why? How? Where is the info? Why do I have to? Why do I have to do it correctly? How? Where is the info? About 50% of the time there will be an actual question about citing. In the other cases, they need the info, they just didn’t verbalize it. I illustrate a couple of different ways to cite and then show a great webpage that has format stuff from Long Island University.

Where to get help Reference Desk 24/7 Ask Now Service ME! Check “Hours” on library website for current hours 24/7 Ask Now Service Help literally 24/7 online ME! Tracey Mayfield (562) 985-8877 and/or tmayfiel@csulb.edu This one is self explanatory. If I was doing the assessment exercise (the ½ sheet of paper), I would now tell them to take the paper back out and ask them to write what they NOW know, think, feel etc. about research.

Thanks for coming Happy Researching! Ta da!