University 101 LIBRARY SESSIONS
Info & Tips for Instructors
BRIEF NOTES:
Library contact with Univ 101 is a well-established part of the
first-year experience. Call or email to schedule your sessions as
soon as possible so that you can get the dates/times you prefer and so that you can
incorporate them into your syllabus.
University 101 Learning Community sections should coordinate content with their
other course and their Information Services liaison. Their sessions should be (at a
minimum) 'business as usual,' as described here, with the possibility of additional library
experiences/programming.
If you are teaching Univ 101 for the first time and want to discuss any of this information
in more detail, please contact the Instruction Librarian (Marsha Miller).
Schedule two sessions (see below).
Library Instruction & Orientation Office x2604
Marsha Miller, Instruction Librarian
Email questions to: marshamiller@indstate.edu
Barb Austin, Library Assistant
Email scheduling requests to b-austin@indstate.edu
WHEN TO SCHEDULE: Early but not too early; but definitely within the first 6-8 weeks of
school. After that, we start getting a lot of Eng 105 scheduling so it may be harder to get your
desired dates. Usually the 2 sessions are scheduled back-to-back, but this is not absolutely
necessary!
Internet sessions could be conducted at any time. Introductory email or computing basics
should be scheduled with Information Technology User Services (ACNS-Train@indstate.edu), or
students should avail themselves of the IT student workshops (see http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-
serv/training/). Students need a campus network account/email account, regardless of whether
they already have a personal email account! LC Instructors: your IS Liaison can help you
coordinate IT scheduling
ATTEND LIBRARY SESSIONS WITH YOUR CLASS!
ATTEND THE SESSION: We cannot emphasize too strongly the role instructors play, merely by
accompanying their students to the sessions. The Univ 101 instructor should interact with the
librarian, help to emphasize points, talk about their own experiences in using libraries, the
Internet, etc., and reiterate why library information skills are a crucial part of the academic
(and life) experience. DO NOT schedule sessions on days you do not plan to attend. Please
sit with your class, not in the back of the room (if in the Classroom). If in the Instruction
Lab, take/share a computer and follow along.
HAVE CLASS MEET ON TIME: Have your classes meet in the Library Instruction
Classroom (2nd floor, 230): If your class meets at 1:00, the librarian will expect them in our
classroom, ready to go. Do not meet in your regular classroom and then walk over; this cuts 5-
15 minutes from the instruction time. Do not meet/wait in the Library lobby; come on to up 230.
Students must take responsibility for being where they need to be. You are welcome to take
time for attendance, announcements, etc.
PREPARING YOUR STUDENTS FOR THEIR SESSIONS
Start with this premise:
INCOMING, FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ARE NOT READY TO USE
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.
REASONS INCLUDE:
No library or small school/library
Card catalog library vs. online environment
'Canned' sources of articles
No understanding of the difference between a magazine article and a
journal article, or how to cite them
Use of online databases but not the ones ISU has
No concept of why research skills are important
No opportunity to think of library research as a lengthy process (or a
process at all) and that it can be planned/broken into workable pieces
No skills in taking info and synthesizing information
Difficulty in determining if the paper is the product, the process is the
product, or both
Bad experiences with library assignments, or librarians, in the past
Not used to asking for help
Really believing that 'everything is on the Internet' [especially dangerous
are the 'buy a paper' sites]
No/little motivation to go beyond the classroom; i.e., "I'd like to find out
more."
Use other class sessions/discussions to get students thinking about the library. Many of them
will be very unprepared for the skills needed in a university library; they don’t have library on
their minds. When discussing certain topics, make comments such as, you could find out more
information on this in the library; when we go to the library, we will…..
ASSESSMENT OF SKILLS: Library Instruction can provide you with library assessment
samples. You can either use them or develop your own. Do not simply ask students:
Do you know how to use the Library?
Do you know how to use the Internet?
Do not assume they will agree when you say, the Library will be an important part of your
academic career, so learn how to use it now.
TIME MANAGEMENT CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Before coming to the Library for your sessions,
have your students look thru each syllabus and highlight any library or research-type
assignments they find. See if the syllabus simply makes the assignment or if it lists resources
for students to use, parameters of a paper (# of resources, etc.). Have students go to the
Library Research Planner (available online at
http://odin.indstate.edu/level1.dir/lio.dir/researchplan.html, or pages 28-29 of the 2000-2001
Academic Planner). Copy and fill out the planner for any library assignment; fill out at least the
top portion.
EMAIL CONTACT WITH LIBRARIAN (before/after session)?: I assume that you and your
students will be doing a lot of communicating via email. Perhaps you will simply set up an email
distribution list to email assignments, perhaps you will have a class listserv, or are using email
via your CourseInfo site. Regardless, you might assign your students to email the librarian doing
the session (clear this with the librarian first).
For example:
Library "Journal" Assignment:
Before you attend your session in the library next week, send an email message to
MarshaMiller@indstate.edu (she is the librarian who will meet with you). Identify yourself as an
Univ 101 student (put the teacher and when your class meets; e.g., MW 1-2). Communicate
briefly; sample topics include:
the role you feel the library will play in your academic life
your previous adventures in the library; i.e., how you used the Library in your high school
specific library research you know you will have to do this semester
what instruction, if any, you have had in using a university library
what do you think will be covered in your library session(s)?
what would you like to see covered in the upcoming session?
Or, following the session, students could email the librarian who met with them, asking
questions, commenting on the session, etc. For those of us working together in Learning
Communities, this may work a bit better, but there's no reason not to do this with every class.
This could help cut down on the mindset that coming the library once for one session is all the
student ever needs; also it helps them think of a librarian as someone with whom they can
consult at any time. Coordinate with the librarian(s) doing your sessions. This communication
could continue all semester.
ELECTRONIC RESERVE: consider placing your own materials on Electronic Reserve,
including articles that are available online full-text via ProQuest. If you have a course web
page, you can link to the Electronic Reserve very easily by using the address above.
Information on Course Reserve is available at http://odin.indstate.edu/level1.dir/reserve.html
ONLINE ARTICLES FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS [IN-PROGRESS]: We hope to utilize the
Library's Electronic Reserve (access LUIS Online Catalog via http://luis.indstate.edu and select
Course Reserve) to provide all of your students with access to selected articles to read.
Ideally, as we build this site, it would have articles pertaining to ALL of the topics covered in a
Univ 101 class, not just library-related articles. It will be up to the individual teacher whether or
not the students will be assigned to access these materials. I will update you on this project as
needed.
LIBRARY SESSION CONTENT
A standard format for Univ 101 sessions has been established. While a lot of basic
library-use information is not terribly interesting, but it is, hopefully, useful. Again, your
attendance and participation help a great deal! The first imperative is that you plan for 2
sessions, and be sure to include this information in your syllabus. Requests for 1
session-only cannot be considered; there is too much information to
present and it is not fair to either your students or the librarians.
1. Research strategies [aka Info Literacy]:
These sessions DO NOT duplicate info received in courses such as Eng 105/107 (as much
as is possible). Do not excuse students from attending. Content is more general, i.e., not
‘how to use LUIS’, but more, ‘when you want X, you need to use Z.’ We are using a format
that incorporates concepts that can be termed Information Literacy Competencies. We used
this format for the first time during the Fall 98 sessions and received favorable comments
from teachers. Until such time as the Gen Ed Info Tech Literacy course is offered (Fall
2001), we will continue to incorporate this into Univ 101. We will introduce students to the
Library homepage and concentrate on those areas that are library-research links (such as
LUIS, Quick Reference, Online Guides). We may also discuss standard types of reference
sources, both print and online.
If you have specific ideas about the content, please discuss them with us in advance.
2. Internet:
In the past, these sessions have included email basics, Internet basics, etc., in whatever
combination seemed appropriate. We often assume, nowadays, that incoming students are
extremely well-versed in using the Internet, but perhaps they only used it for things like chat
and haven’t needed to really dig in and use the ‘Net academically. We want to continue to
familiarize students with the ISU Library websites, especially those linking students to the
web (Internet Search Tools, Subject Browser). We will have university-level specialized
indexes and other resources that they would not be familiar with. In assessing your
students, what do they need that they haven’t gotten elsewhere? We can discuss different
search engines, evaluating resources, and why going to the Internet first isn't necessarily
always the best strategy.
3. Library self-paced tours: Student still need to know how to get around
the library; they will not be able to do everything online. This should be a
regular part of the course. Order when you schedule your sessions. Don’t worry about
students having to take the tour more than once; we have a sheet they can sign if they
already took the tour with their English class, and we report the credit to you. In the
Learning Communities, the IS Liaison may participate by distributing these to the students
and explaining 'why' and 'how'. Tours can be assigned to individual students, or you may
opt to have two students share the tour and the exercise points. Completed tours are turned
in at the LI Office, scored and returned to the teacher or liaison. If you choose to use the
tours, you will need to send class rosters to LI.
A copy of this information is available online at
http://jaguar.indstate.edu/level1.dir/lio.dir/u101.html
Office of Library Instruction, Indiana State University
Special/univ101instructorsaugust2000