Alternative Library Assignments

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Alternative Assignments Requiring Library Research

Locate two articles or editorials reflecting liberal and conservative views using a research database. Do the same assignment, but instead select an earlier time frame, such as the 1960s, or the 1980s, and compare them with each other and with the newer articles.
Have students locate and read a current newspaper or magazine article on a controversial topic that takes an opposing perspective from their own. Then have them write about or present the article to the class.
With the librarians’ assistance, provide students with a list of publications in your discipline available in print or in the library’s databases. Have students select a publication and present it to the class, explaining the kinds of articles and information it contains. Alternatively, have groups of students review articles from a particular publication and present it to the class.
Have students prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic of their choice. They must include a range of sources. They should write a brief report detailing the types of information available and the quality of information they were able to locate.
Have students prepare a poster session as they would for a conference. This involves selecting a narrow topic, providing an annotated list of source material, preparing handouts, and preparing an engaging graphic display. Hold a class session that is the conference. You are the conference coordinator.
Have students submit an initial short paper using two internet sources of their choice. For a second assignment, require them to research the web sites selected for the original assignment. They need to identify the authors, the sources of information provided, evaluate the sites against other kinds of source material (books, articles, etc.)
Students in groups research a topic. Each student in the group is required to use a different type of resource: a reference work, books, free web, article databases, or video. The group will present the topic to the class, each member presenting the results from their sources. The group creates an annotated bibliography for class members.
Have students locate primary and secondary sources related to an event or topic and compare how it is represented. (Make sure that you and they both understand what you mean by the terms “primary” and “secondary”.)
Assign students individual web sites and research journals related to your discipline. Have them prepare detailed evaluations of each. (Consult with a librarian to make sure that the research journal is available in full text through the library’s databases or is part of our print collections.)
If you want to have students see how your subject has “real world” impact, have them do research in the newspaper databases for stories related to the topic. They can then present a weekly “News in …” segment to the class. Schedule instruction so that they get effective instruction and learn techniques to direct their search to subject specific sites and learn how to find video files, images or audio to add to the news.
Have students select a topic at the beginning of the semester. Have them keep a research journal during the semester. The point of the journal is not that it leads to a final paper but simply to gain knowledge on the topic, so you should gather the journal at random intervals. The requirement is that students need to use several types of sources to learn more about a topic that they’ve selected as interesting and about which they record what they learn and where they learn the information. They can attach printouts or web links. They could instead set up a web log using any of several free blogging sites.
Have students select an individual significant to the discipline to research and then create a mock myspace.com web page or create a mock match.com profile using their space on the DACC server for the individual. They will need to annotate their information with the sources they used.

Designing Library Assignments for Success

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Created January 10, 2006