"Paperless" Information Literacy Assignments

Don't forget to sign up for our next information session tomorrow and Wednesday.

“Paperless” Information Literacy Assignments
Tuesday, April 6: 2:30-3:20
Wednesday, April 7: 3:00-3:50
 
Starting to plan for Fall classes? How about a new approach to information literacy assignments? While the research paper is a classic approach, it isn’t the only option. We’ll explore ideas for other types of assignments that require students to demonstrate research and evaluation skills. We’ll also spend part of this session brainstorming possible assignments to help meet your specific needs, so you should walk away from this session with new ideas to try in the Fall.

Library Party Today!

Don't forget to come over to the Grand View Library Spring Party at 11:30 today. We'll have all kinds of food to eat and great company. Plus, you can check out a book while you are here.

Also, there are some pretty tasty desserts. Come early!

Plagiarism!

We're discussing plagiarism and prevention methods here on the blog.  What do you think are some interesting and effective ways of preventing plagiarism in the future?  Do we need to create more assignments that focus on citation methods and attribution?  Or are there other lessons we can teach?

We would like to hear your thoughts on the subject.

National Reading Month

(courtesy of Patrick Gage)

Don't forget that even though it's Spring Break, it's also National Reading Month.  March is the month to finally read those books you've always wanted to read!  So find some time to sit down and open a great book.

Spring Break

Spring Break is upon us!  Enjoy your time off, but remember too that this time is also good for catching up on projects and papers.  The library will always be available online and we will be open during the day.

Our hours for Spring Break:
Saturday March 13th & Sunday March 14th - Closed
Monday March 15th-Friday March 19th - 7:45AM - 4:30PM
Saturday March 20th & Sunday March 21st - Closed

Our regular hours will resume on Monday March 22nd.

Have a great break!

African American Read In

February is African American history month! It's a time when we remember the great men and women in American history who changed things for the better. In past years we have heard from such voices as Alice Walker, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King, Jr. This year we'll hopefully hear from some new voices as well, including from Haiti.

The earthquake that ravaged the nation of Haiti turned our eyes to a country that has experienced misfortune for centuries. At our read-in on Thursday at 11:30 we hope to hear some voices from Haiti's past and present. Haiti has a rich history and has produced some great authors and artists.

So if you're interested, come on by Holy Grounds from 11:30-12:30 and share in the experience.

The Embedded Librarian

In the library, we have noticed that students are easily overloaded when their classes come in for an orientation session since there’s so much to cover in such a short amount of time. We have also noticed that students don’t always realize all the legwork that goes into a research assignment until it’s too late. All too often, we see students hurriedly pulling together a few websites to throw a paper together the night before it’s due. To help ameliorate these problems we have been piloting a new program in which we embed a librarian within a class.

In the fall of 2009, I worked closely with Carolyn Pauling’s Professionalism I class and Avilah Getzler’s English 101 class to test the embedded model. Currently, Carolyn Pauling and I are refining the model with her spring Professionalism I students, and I’m also working with 2 sections of Kathy Peterson’s Abnormal Psychology class to help them get through their intensive portfolio project.

Rather than just scheduling one library visit for each of the classes, we have broken up my portion of the instruction over the course of the semester to place it where it makes the most sense to students. In addition to having more than one library visit, I have also gone into the classroom to work with students on their own turf.

Since I’ve become a part of the classes, I’ve been identified as a personal contact for the students; rather than having students come over to get help from “the library,” they have a name and face that they are already familiar with when they need extra help. I have also been able to provide more meaningful feedback to students about their preliminary bibliographies and other assignments. Overall, having an embedded librarian has helped students develop more meaningful contact with library resources while practicing important research skills. I’ve had lots of fun getting to know the students better and working with them more closely on their research projects too!

-Megan

Salinger and Zinn

The world lost two great writers this past weekend. J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, passed away. Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, also passed away. Salinger changed writing and people's perceptions of others around them with the legendary Catcher. Zinn changed the way people saw history, particularly American history. Zinn wanted people to see that great changes in human history came from the bottom up, not from the top down.

The Grand View Library has plenty of books by both authors. Come over and take a look at some of them and find out why people are mourning the losses of these two men.

Books by Salinger:
Catcher in the Rye
Franny and Zooey
Nine Stories

Books by Zinn:
Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice
People's History of the United States: 1492-Present
SNCC: The New Abolitionists
Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal

New Student Study Space

If you've been in the library lately, you probably have noticed some missing shelves. We made some changes over the Christmas break, including taking some of our reference materials in front of the study rooms and moving them to the basement classroom. Those materials are still accessible, but the space leftover from their removal has now become a large student study space.

You will find three extra-long tables with plenty of chairs back by the study rooms. There are also three large dry-erase whiteboards for student use. We've also made a little more room for our comfy blue furniture near the big window that faces E. 14th street.

We've also added some popular reading material on the long shelf in front of the study tables. Here you will find plenty of popular fiction arranged alphabetically by author. These books are on the honor system so you don't need an ID to check them out.

So if you're looking for a good place to study or a good book, come check out our changes on the 1st floor!

Orientation Sessions

Professor Judge from the English department shares her thoughts with us on library orientations.

"In fall 2009 my First Year Composition class met in the library three times. Usually, I introduce English Composition students to the library with one visit with instruction from librarians that is designed to help students with research projects.

In the future, I will continue to schedule multiple classes with a librarian for First Year Composition students. The reasons? Multiple visits benefit students by giving them customized help with their research projects and greater familiarity with our library’s systems and resources. Typically, students complain that they can’t find enough material for their research papers, but not one student ran into that problem last fall because of the extra help they had in locating material. Also, students found better sources because they received three times as much instruction on how to do this.

I think that visiting the library more than once also helped students to be comfortable in that space because I know that a number of them routinely use the library as their place to study."

Therese

Feel free to leave a comment or email us with any thoughts.