This lesson is designed to provide some basic information about the library, focused on accessing materials—checking out books, interlibrary loan, off-campus access—and getting additional research assistance. By default, all classes conclude with this lesson.
Students will:
This lesson requires 5 minutes of class time.
None.
Lesson Materials*
*Lesson materials are meant to give a general overview of the lesson's content and approach. Librarians may alter materials based on their understanding of the needs of the class.
The Background Research lesson is intended to develop students’ understanding of research as a nonlinear process and emphasizes the role of exploration in developing a research focus, understanding relevant context, and identifying strategies for further inquiry.
Students will:
This lesson requires 25 minutes of class time.
None. While it can be useful for students to have given some thought to what they’re interested in researching, no preparation is expected.
Lesson Materials*
*Lesson materials are meant to give a general overview of the lesson's content and approach. Librarians may alter materials based on their understanding of the needs of the class.
This lesson guides students through a process of developing a research question by using a background research source to brainstorm questions and then identifying and refining a promising research question based on characteristics introduced in the lesson.
Students will:
This lesson requires 50 minutes of class time.
This lesson is designed to use background research to help generate research questions and pairs well with the Background Research lesson plan. However, there are options for doing the lesson with a source students bring to class, or one supplied by the librarian.
Lesson Materials*
*Lesson materials are meant to give a general overview of the lesson's content and approach. Librarians may alter materials based on their understanding of the needs of the class.
This lesson is designed to help students think about the value of thinking critically and strategically about their information seeking process and to give them an opportunity to design a search strategy for their research by identifying keywords and determining where they should search in order to meet their information needs.
Students will:
This lesson requires 25 minutes of class time.
The "Developing Your Search Strategy" lesson is designed to be taught once students already have a strong idea of what they're interested in researching and are ready to start exploring the academic literature on their topic.
Lesson Materials*
*Lesson materials are meant to give a general overview of the lesson's content and approach. Librarians may alter materials based on their understanding of the needs of the class.
This lesson introduces Monarch OneSearch—the Libraries’ tool for searching all books and articles in its collections—pointing out key features and tips for effective searching. In this hands-on lesson, students will have an opportunity to use Monarch OneSearch to find books and articles related to their research topic.
Students will:
This lesson requires 20 minutes of class time.
To be prepared for this lesson, students should have identified a research topic and developed a robust list of keywords. The "Developing Your Search Strategy" lesson serves as useful preparation for this lesson, but can be omitted if students have already identified keywords through background research or other activities.
*Lesson materials are meant to give a general overview of the lesson's content and approach. Librarians may alter materials based on their understanding of the needs of the class.
This lesson introduces to students subject-specific databases and explores the uses of thinking disciplinarily during the research process. Students will learn how to use library Research Guides to identify relevant databases, how to search using basic Boolean operators, to identify keywords from database subject terms, and to find the full-text of articles identified via a database search.
Students will:
This lesson requires 20 minutes of class time.
To be prepared for this lesson, students should have identified a research topic and developed a robust list of keywords. The "Developing Your Search Strategy" lesson serves as useful preparation for this lesson, but can be omitted if students have already identified keywords through background research or other activities.
Additionally, this lesson works best when students already have some experience with library search tools—like Monarch OneSearch—and is recommended for ENGL 211C and ENGL 231C rather than ENGL 110C.
Lesson Materials*
*Lesson materials are meant to give a general overview of the lesson's content and approach. Librarians may alter materials based on their understanding of the needs of the class.
