Library Instruction Guidelines for Faculty
Types of Instruction
Options for receiving instruction at Reese Library are:
1. Reserve a time outside of class — Stop at the reference desk and ask to reserve a time convenient to your schedule. You can designate a time for instruction whenever the library is open. These sessions can be specifically designed to cover any resources you need to learn.
2. Course-related instruction — Classes are taught by librarians during the regular class period for faculty who wish their students to get instruction related to specific library assignments or to learn general research methods and library skills. The sessions can last for fifty(50) minutes or two(2) hours, cover multiple days, or whatever time frame you desire, to give ample time for learning library skills and covering appropriate resources, and to fit into your course schedule. At least two(2) weeks notice is required to give library instructors adequate preparation time. Please call 706-667-4908 or 706-737-1748 and ask for Camilla Baker, Library Instruction Coordinator, to schedule your class for instruction. You may also fill out an online request form to schedule a class.
Library instruction is held in Reese Library, Room 304, for reserved and scheduled classes. The classroom is equipped with twenty-three(23) campus networked computers, a networked printer, and a celing-mounted projector. Library instruction may be taught at other campus locations for larger class sizes. During classes taught in the Library, students receive hands-on instruction and engage actively with the resources they are being taught to use. Class-specific handouts are distributed which are helpful when students return to the library to complete their assignments.
Practical Application of Classroom Training.
The following are some suggested practical exercises to reinforce what is learned in the Library classroom.
1. Locate a popular magazine article, then find a scholarly article on the same subject. Compare the two articles for content, style, bias, audience.
2. Prepare an annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, and other sources on a topic. Include evaluative annotations.
3. Select a topic and compare how that topic is treated in two to five different sources.
4. Analyze the content, style, and audience of three journals in a given discipline.
5. Update an existing bibliography or review of the literature.
6. Read an editorial and find facts to support it.
7. Choose an autobiography of someone related to the course content. Find secondary sources which deal with an idea or event described in the autobiography. Compare and contrast the sources.
8. Select a scholar/researcher in a field of study and explore that person's career and ideas. Besides locating biographical information, students prepare a bibliography of writings and analyze the reaction of the scholarly community to the researcher's work.
9. Evaluate a web site based on specific criteria.
10. Assemble background information on a company or organization in preparation for a hypothetical interview. For those continuing in academica, research prospective colleagues' and professors' backgrounds, publications, current research, etc.
11. Conduct the research for a paper except for writing the final draft. At various times students are required to turn in 1) their choice of topic; 2) an annotated bibliography; 3) an outline; 4) a thesis statement; 5) an introduction and a conclusion.
12. Pick a topic and research it in literature from the 60s and 70s. Then research the same topic in the literature of the 80s and 90s. Compare and contrast the topic in a bibliographic essay.
13. To develop the ability to evaluate sources, have students prepare a written criticism of the literature on a particular issue by finding book reviews, by searching citiation indexes to see who is quoting the context of the scholarship in a particular field.
14. Have students use bibliographies, guides to the literature and the Internet to find primary sources on an issue or historical period. They can contrast the treatment in the primary sources with the treatment in secondary sources including their textbook.
15. Write a biographical sketch of a famous person. Use biographical dictionaries, popular press and scholarlys sources, and books to find information about the person.
16. Choose a topic of interest from U.S. 1877 to the present and search the topic on the Internet. Cross reference all search engines and find all websites which discuss the topic. Like a research paper, students will have to narrow and broaden accordingly. The student will then produce an annotated bibliography on the topic, based solely on internet references.
17. Everyone becomes an historical figure for a day. Students have to do the research on the person, time-period, culture, etc. They give an oral presentation in class and answer questions.
18. Students adopt a persona and write letters or journal entries that person might have written. The level of research required to complete the assignment can range from minimal to a depth appropriate for advanced classes.
19. Write a newspaper story describing an event--political, soical, cultural, whatever suits the objectives-based on their research. The assignment can be limited to one or two articles, or it can be more extensive. This is a good exercise in critical reading and in summarizing. The assignment gains interest if several people research the same event in different sources and compare the newspaper stories that result.
20. Contrast journal articles or editorials from recent publications reflecting conservative and liberal tendencies.
Coordination Instructions for Library Classes
Please provide the following information when contacting us for a library instruction class:
1. Teacher's name; telephone number or e-mail address?
2. Class name and number?
3. Number of students?
4. What does the teacher want covered?
5. What assignment will be given?
6. Date and Time preferred?
7. Meeting place? Lobby, Reference Room, Room 304 or Other.
8. Other instructions?