Library Course Assignment Pages: Helping Students with Research Skills UENR 2008, Corvallis Oregon Margaret Mellinger, Valley Library Kate Gronemyer, Cascades Library

Learning Outcomes Discuss what you want your students to learn from a research project Identify some of the problems students have using library resources when they are doing coursework Understand how librarians can help you help your students.

Starting with Students What do you want your students to gain from a research project?

Problems with Research What problems do students have with research and in using the library to do research?

Student Perceptions “Just remember that students are less informed about the resources of the library than ever before because they are competing heavily with the Internet.” OCLC, 2005

Student Perceptions 2% of students start their research on a library web page Students have a model of “self-service” Students need a starting place

Librarians can help Collaborate with instructors to build assignments. Visit classes and teach students how to access library tools that they will use for a particular research project Create web pages for particular courses to give students clear starting points for their assignments..

Libraries creating course pages And your library…?

Publishing Tool

Faculty Responses “... more students creating their own maps, more students using census data, and more students who appeared to understand in-text citation and bibliography formats.” “It certainly makes my job easier because for students who do not use the library frequently, the webpage provides them with a bit of security about doing the research that is required.”

Student Responses “I had to spend less time on source research & spent more time thinking about writing” “I showed the ICA to a professor in fisheries & encouraged him to think offering about offering something similar.”

Student Responses “ Very nice to have one source to begin to find the information I needed to complete my assignment” “I would not have been able to find all of these resources if they had not been sorted and placed in one convenient website.”

Take away message We can work with what students already know and do to help them approach research in a better way Students need a starting place—it won’t be the library unless we make it. Your librarians can be partners in improving student research.

Notes College Students' Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. OCLC Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester

Notes Oregon State University Libraries ICAPs are on the OSUL’s home page under a link called “Get Help with a class” Read about the ICAPs and download the open source software

Thank you! Questions?