Indiana State University

Last updated April 18, 2000; comments to marshamiller@indstate.edu


Note: This was written for inclusion in the Learning Communities Handbook, August 25, 1999 draft document. The Handbook was used by participants in the Fall 1999 Learning Communities at Indiana State University. It is being evaluated and revised, with the revision due out in May 2000. It should appear on the web at some point, probably at http://web.indstate.edu/lilly/L99/lilly_home99.html or http://web.indstate.edu/lilly/L99/lc99_home.html. Please note that some of the information has already been changed (look for the next edition).

Information Services Support for Learning Communities

The bewildering array of new information services will make libraries more useful and their services more effective, but it will also make them more difficult to use. It can be expected that modern technologies will cause users to become more, rather than less, dependent on librarians...

"But we're a university! We have to have a library!" said Ridcully. "It adds tone. What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the Library?" "Students," said the Senior Wrangler morosely. -- Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

 Information Services currently consists of Library Services, Information Technology Services, and Telecommunications Services. Personnel from both Library Services and Information Technology Services participate in the Learning Communities Initiative. Many services and resources already in place can be adapted for the LC course. Information on those services and resources is detailed in this section. Additionally, new resources or approaches may be developed, in cooperation with the teaching faculty and other members of the Information Services LC Team. Some of the information in this section has been adapted from information previously presented to groups such as University 101 instructors and freshman composition graduate teaching assistants. Much of the information applies to anyone needing library or computing support. As the Fall 1999 semester approaches, each LC team will work together to decide what components are needed in each paired course. Most of the decisions should be built into the syllabus. The Information Services Liaison may also assist in arranging scheduling (described below), conduct portions of a class, describe and distribute materials in advance of a scheduled session, or simply be on call, as needed, for both teacher and student.

Logistics (scheduling what, where, who); Assessment of student needs)

Library Instruction & Orientation

The Office of LI&O is located on the 2nd floor of the Library (room 204). Two classrooms and an instructional computer lab are available for librarian-conducted instruction. To request scheduling or receive more information: call extension 2604; email marshamiller@indstate.edu; visit the LI&O Home Page at http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/lio.dir/liohome.html.

Practical Tips and Suggestions:

Course-specific Instruction.

The ISU Library has an extensive instructional program that reaches across all academic disciplines and all levels, from high school through graduate-level. Faculty members whose class assignments will require Library research skills and use of Library resources (both print and electronic) should contact Library Instruction & Orientation (LI&O) to make arrangements. Scheduling should take place well in advance of the anticipated dates needed. While class groups of 25-30 are preferred, LI&O can accommodate groups of up to 60. A variety of instructional options are available, including library search skills assessment, self-directed library tours, online catalog exercises, lecture and computer lab time. LI&O encourages faculty to contact either LI&O or Library Information Services to consult on anticipated library projects and assignments. A variety of handouts are available online or via the Library's Information Rack (1st floor). Additional handouts are developed as appropriate.

Utilize the Library's Electronic Reserve (http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/reserve.dir/course2.html) to provide students with easy access to online full-text ProQuest Direct articles to read. It will be up to the individual teacher whether or not the students will be assigned to access these materials. Copyright may play a factor in what/how much may be placed on reserve.

In addition, consider placing personal materials on Electronic Reserve. If you have a course web page, you can link to the Electronic Reserve very easily by using the address above. To place materials, whether they are online, e.g., ProQuest articles, or other articles, sample tests, other documents of your own creation, please contact the Reserve Desk. Online forms are under development.

If you are unfamiliar with what Electronic Reserve material look like, feel free to access the Course Transformation Academy materials. Just to go Electronic Reserve, click on M (for Miller). Then click on Course Transformation Academy. The ID is miller; the password is library. You will find sample articles that link directly to ProQuest, articles from journals; pages from a text, and the current regular reserve form and a draft of the forthcoming electronic reserve form. If you have questions, talk to Library Instruction/Marsha Miller (general questions/ideas) or call Kerri Gray, ext. 2546 or libgray@cml.indstate.edu, to set up reserve, answer technical questions, etc.
 
I need
I will
To place materials on Electronic Reserve Contact my IS Liaison -or- visit Library Reserve (Library, 1st floor)
To arrange for introductory email sessions Contact my IS Liaison -or- contact Information Technology User Services at acns-train@indstate.edu
To direct my students to introductory computing or email workshops Contact my ISU Liaison -or- direct the students to http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/training/
To arrange to have self-directed library tour booklets distributed to my class Contact my ISU Liaison -or- the Office of Library Instruction & Orientation
To find some online articles for my students to read (probably to add to my Electronic Reserve) Contact my IS Liaison -or- the Office of Library Instruction & Orientation
To find some pertinent websites Contact my IS Liaison
To incorporate library/computing links into my course website Contact my IS Liaison
To direct students to online library resource guides Link to the Library's Help Guides at http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/lio.dir/helpdx.html

Information Technology

IT Web Site (http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/)

The IT web site should be the first place you look if you need computer information or assistance. It provides answers to commonly asked computer questions, ISU related computer information, IT services, and documents to assist you in using popular software products. IT Help Desk (Angela Harrison, Help Desk Manager) Visit us in person during regular hours: Call us at x2910: Contact us electronically: Our Help Desk serves as the hub for most of your computer needs. We can help you with hardware and software installation, hardware and software problems, network access, remote access, and ISU computer information. For special walk-in and phone hours, please see the IT Help Desk web page at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/help/. Computer Facilities for Instruction (Ginny Whitkanack, Computer Labs Manager)

Student Computing Complex SCC103, ccginny@amber.indstate.edu, x4035

Most of the IT computing facilities may be reserved for seminars, classes, or workshops. Call the Computer Labs Manager to schedule a room for one time use or to reserve it throughout the semester. To see a list of reservations for the current week, visit http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/labs/reserv.html. To read the lab reservation policy, visit http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/labs/reservinglabs.html. Mailing lists designed for faculty that teach in the labs are also available. More information about subscribing to these mailing lists is available on the IT computer labs web page at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/labs/.

IT can also help you set up student accounts for classes requiring use of the mainframes and minicomputers or if you wish to reserve disk space on a network server for course materials. The class accounts request form is available at http://web.indstate.edu:80/acns/tech-supp/forms/clsacct-form.htm.
 

 Computer Training (Teresa Crafton, Training/Documentation Analyst)

SE 109, tec@indstate.edu, x4140

Training Registration IT-Train@indstate.edu or x7749

IT offers a variety of services to enhance the computer knowledge of ISU students, faculty, and staff. For more information on these and other training options, please visit the IT Training web page at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/training/.

 Faculty Technology Resources, [ ], Unit Manager

 Instructional Development and Faculty Technology Resources

Faculty Computing Resource Center, Student Computing Complex SCC110

8:00am-6:00pm, http://fcrc.indstate.edu

Media Technology and Resources' Faculty Computing Resource Center (FCRC) is available to assist faculty who wish to learn about using multimedia, the Internet, and courseware authoring technologies. While FCRC resources are available to all faculty, it focuses primarily on helping faculty enhance ISU's instructional program. Help and instruction for a variety of multimedia software is available primarily for Macintosh and PC platforms.

A limited amount of software is available for checkout to faculty members who wish to practice techniques they learn, or who might simply like to experiment on their own. In addition, workshops are scheduled during the semester to cover topics related to multimedia authoring, classroom presentation, and innovative uses of the web for instruction.

 Printing and Text Processing Services IT has facilities to assist you in laser printing, text and graphics scanning, and mailing list and labels generation.

For more information, contact the Help Desk at x2910 or visit the IT Printing and Text Processing Page at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/textproc_printing/

 For more information on faculty computing services, please visit the IT Faculty Guide at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/facultyguide.html.

For more information on student computing services, please visit the IT Student Computing Handbook available at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/handbook/content.html.

The Role of the IS Team Member Assigned to an LC

The IS Team Member can assist faculty with incorporating library work (especially in fielding creative ideas for assignments), computing skills, etc. into a syllabus; assist in the creation of library assignments; find useful Internet sites for a particular class, project, or subject area; connect faculty to other services/resources.

The IS Team Member can help students in large or small groups, or individually, in narrowing topics for research projects, instruction in the online catalog, evaluating web pages.

The Role of Library Instruction & Orientation

Office of Library Instruction & Orientation (LI&O) prepares library users for academic research by providing them with the skills needed to effectively use either paper-based or electronic library resources. Library Instruction & Orientation (LI&O).

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?

 The Role of Information Technology in Learning Communities

Information Technology (IT) is a service unit organized to provide computing and telecommunications resources to Indiana State University students, faculty, and staff. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Information Services, Information Technology employs 60 full-time staff and over 120 student workers. This staff supports several mainframe and minicomputers, a host of data communications hardware, 16 microcomputer laboratories for use by students, faculty, and staff, a campus-wide local area network, and connections to the Internet.

Information Technology is available to support learning communities in a variety of activities. Hands-on workshops can be conducted on computing at ISU, computing basics, or software applications.

Training documentation on the web or in print can be provided as reference tools.

The ISL and the Eight Competencies

Information Services support can be utilized within any/all of the basic competencies. While more obvious within some competencies than others, the examples below illustrate how course assignments can be developed to build upon the basic instructional experience. Some of the examples would work better in the subject class, some in the Univ 101 (or equivalent), or the LS Team may coordinate/breakdown the assignment between both courses. Students can/should utilize electronic resources, not just when they need to find materials for a research paper; they can begin to see how knowing where to go and what to do when they get there can help them in all aspects of their academic and personal life. Throughout their freshman year (and perhaps throughout all of their collegiate career), students can build a portfolio of articles, citations, websites, etc. to represent their personal interests, academic major/minor, specific projects, etc.

Competency 1: Communicating Effectively and Interpreting with Insight

Have students participate in a chat room or listserv on a particular topic. Perhaps they could talk about some of the competencies. Teach netiquette rules. Competency 2: Orienting toward Academic Success Students have an open discussion (in class or on class listserv) sharing thoughts about their high school libraries and how they were expected/taught to use them (if they were), computers/Internet access, a paper they wrote when they were seniors and how they researched it. Students look at all of their syllabi for library or computer-related assignments and project what they will need to learn in order to complete the assignments. Students use the Library Research Planners to outline each assignment they find. Competency 3: Enhancing Critical Thinking (a) Give students URLs to two web sites which treat the same topic differently (bias or agenda) and ask them to compare and contrast what they find. They should incorporate evaluation criteria into their comments.

(b) Have students read a popular magazine article and a research journal article on the same topic and compare and contrast what they find. They should incorporate characteristics of magazines and journals into their comments.

 Competency 4: Setting and Tracking Goals for Living and Learning Students are paired an upperclassmate in their major who shows them the types of research papers and other projects they will be expected to produce. The upperclassmate talks about how she/he gained the necessary skills (or didn't). Competency 5: Developing the Personal Life
  1. Student chooses hobby, non-academic interest to share with classmates. Student gives class a list of 1-2 books and 1-2 articles (good for listserv practice).
  2. Student expresses opinion on class topic or personal topic; cites 1 newspaper article, 1 magazine article, one website.
Competency 6: Developing the Social Self
  1. Use DION to find an event to attend on campus or in TH. Attend and give an oral report on the event.
  2. Find a magazine in the Current Periodicals Browsing collection that they are unfamiliar with. Review it for the class.
  3. Compare newspaper articles on a topic (chosen or assigned within the last two weeks from a) Terre Haute Tribune Star or Indianapolis Star; b) New York Times or Washington Post, and one of the international newspapers (some are in English, some not).
  4. Students develop a list of print and online resources they will use to stay informed of current events.
Competency 7: Maintaining Well-Being Student chooses from among the Univ 101 Wellness topics (nutrition, sexual responsibility, interpersonal behaviors, stress management, ethical behavior) and looks for recent articles and/or websites to share with class. Perhaps used to develop the course website resources or the LC website. Competency 8: Surviving Financially
  1. Have students research the purchase of an electronic product. Use Consumer Reports and/or articles from Computer Select for comparisons, decide on the "best" brand. Give students URLs to compare prices on commercial web sites. Have students write a brief report on why they decided on a certain brand and what they found to be the best price.
  2. Have students investigate print and electronic sources of financial aid.
Carol Kuhlthau's model of the Information Search Process is helpful (see bibliography):



[information from this point on in the document was either incorporated elsewhere in the LC Handbook, or was intended to go into an appendix. The appendix was not published; plans for putting the supplemental information on the web has not yet taken place]

[The Role of the Teaching Faculty Member]

Active, ongoing involvement; help write the syllabus; help re-write the syllabus; be sure the IS person is listed!

University 101 Learning Community sections should coordinate content with their other course and their Information Services liaison. Their sessions could be 'business as usual,' as described here, or something completely different.

We cannot emphasize too strongly the role instructors play, merely by accompanying their students to the sessions. The Univ 101 instructor should plan to interact with the librarian, helping 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. Please DO NOT schedule sessions on days you do not plan to attend.

PREPARING YOUR STUDENTS FOR THEIR SESSIONS

Start with this premise:

INCOMING, FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ARE NOT READY TO USE

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.

REASONS INCLUDE:

Use other class sessions/discussions to get students thinking about the library. Many students 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…..

Question: Where and When Does the Undergraduate Student Learn How to Use Library Resources? Currently: about 70-75% via freshman composition; some never learn. It is up to the classroom teacher to identify the need. Also, as can be seen from the Freshman Profile (is that what it's called?) students tend to overestimate many skills, including computing and library research. Ask your students to describe their school libraries. Ask them to describe a paper they researched and wrote during their senior year: for what course? How long was it? Where did they look for their resources? How many resources did they use? You will be surprised at the wide range of responses. One thing library sessions can do is equalize the experiences of students in one course, get them to a baseline of shared experiences. Doing research in pairs or groups can also take advantage of the shared skills. The LCPI can also play a strong role in reinforcing the need to acquire new library research skills or adapt skills they already have.

Question: What Comes First, the Syllabus or the Project? As course content is developed, library projects or assignments may self-identify; i.e., a logical part of the course is a very specific library project. Or, part of the course may be a written report or paper, the teacher assumes that students know how to gather the resources they need to produce the paper, and students do not indicate any lack of knowledge. The teacher gets the papers and is surprised to discover that the resources used were inadequate. Then, in questioning the students, the teacher discovers that most of them have either never/rarely had to use library resources, or they have not used the resources of their university library. Today, it is common to hear students protest, 'But I used the Internet, wasn't that enough?'

Libraries are complex entities that require skill, training, and experience to be used well. Occasional, inexperienced and experienced users alike need assistance in order to extract maximum utility from a library’s resources. Within the Learning Community environment, librarians and teaching faculty will have unique opportunities to blend library instruction into their course. Some/all concepts that can be identified as information literacy may be included. (Note: as the Gen Ed Information Technology Literacy course is developed, some of these concepts will transfer into that course; however, the course is scheduled to be offered during Fall 2000, so, during Fall 1999, the LC course is the logical point of contact.) Further, some concepts may be introduced in the anchor (Univ 101 or equivalent) course, and complementary/other concepts may be introduced or reinforced in the companion course. As both teachers and the IS liaison work together to develop the syllabus, patterns should develop indicating what needs to be covered when. The worst kind of library instruction is that which has no relationship to the course. Students need to know why they are receiving the instruction; it must be directly related to course content or assignments.

Information Literacy involves

Shapiro and Hughes identify seven different literacies:
  1. Tool literacy; or the ability to understand and use the practical and conceptual tools of current information technology, including software, hardware and multimedia, that are relevant to education and the areas of work and professional life that the individual expects to inhabit.
  2. Resource literacy, or the ability to understand the form, format, location and access methods of information resources, especially daily expanding networked information resources.
  3. Social-structured literacy, or knowing that and how information is socially situated and produced.
  4. Research literacy, or the ability to understand and use the IT-based tools relevant to the work of today's research and scholar.
  5. Publishing literacy, or the ability to format and publish research and ideas electronically, in textual and multimedia forms (including via World Wide Web, electronic mail and distribution lists, and CD-ROMs), to introduce them into the electronic public realm and the electronic community of scholars.
  6. Emerging technology literacy, or the ability to ongoingly adapt to, understand, evaluate and make use of the continually emerging innovations in formation technology so as not to be a prisoner of prior tools and resources, and to make intelligent decisions about the adoption of new ones.
  7. Critical literacy, or the ability to evaluate critically the intellectual, human and social strengths and weaknesses, potentials and limits, benefits and costs of information technologies.
Students do not tend to break up a library research assignment into workable parts; they only see the assignment, the [vague] need to get [some sort of] resources, and then, write the paper. They do not tend to leave time to evaluate the resources, re-choose and re-evaluate resources, gain skills in finding the resources (e.g., how to use a particular database). They narrow their options, find they have neither the right resources or enough time, get frustrated, write poor papers and develop impressions of libraries that are not helpful or useful to them. The responsibility lies both with the teaching faculty and the librarian/information specialist, in getting students ready to accept that skill as well as time, is part of the information literacy process. Helping students develop a research strategy that they can adapt to any resource-gathering assignment is a vital skill that is often ignored or unidentified. Conversely, many libraries lean too much the other way, preparing library research handbooks with pages of charts, blanks to fill in, etc., that, in their own way, can interfere with what we really need the students to grasp.

The following materials are samples intended for inclusion in Handbook appendices. Please note that some of the information has changed.

Notes for University 101 Instructors (Learning in the Academic Community)

LIBRARY SESSION CONTENT

We have established a standard format for Univ 101 sessions. If you have different requirements, please be sure to tell us when you schedule your sessions. We want to do what will work best for your students and what you feel most comfortable with. We realize that 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!

  1. Research strategies [aka Info Literacy]

    2.  

     

    These sessions DO NOT duplicate info received in courses such as Eng 105/107. 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, we will continue to incorporate this into Univ 101.

    If you have specific ideas about the content, please discuss them with us in advance.

  2. Internet

    3.  

     

    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 familiarize students with the ISU Library website, especially but not limited to LUIS the Online Catalog. 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? In particular, we would like to address using Internet-based Library resources as well as standard Internet search tools. We also have a growing number of ISU-specific resource guides (both to the library collection and Internet-based resources) that we want to make sure students know about. 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. 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&O 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&O.

DOES MY COURSE NEED LIBRARY INSTRUCTION

A self-assessment tool for teaching faculty

I should help my students develop the ability to use the literature of my discipline available in the library.
r Yes
r No
My students should have specific instructions on how to use the library in each course in which I require its use.
r Yes
r No
It should take considerable time for students to master the skills needed to use the library for my courses.
r Yes
r No
I should be familiar with the range of library resources useful in teaching my students.
r Yes
r No
For students in my courses, the library should be considered primarily as a place to study textbooks, lecture notes, and similar materials.
r Yes
r No
I stay aware of new reference/library sources (print and electronic) that I might add to my reading assignments; course bibliographies, regular reserve/electronic reserve, etc.
r Yes
r No
I should develop an interesting problem to introduce my students to the library.
r Yes
r No
I should have the main responsibility for ensuring that my students make good use of the library.
r Yes
r No
My students should use the library to learn how scholars examine major works and ideas in my discipline.
r Yes
r No
I should be better prepared to teach students how to make good use of the Library.
r Yes
r No
I should evaluate the library assignments of my students on the same basis as any other assignments for my courses.
r Yes
r No
It should reflect poorly on my department if the library is not heavily used by students in our courses.
r Yes
r No
My students must utilize specific library resources; e.g., a reference book/series; an electronic index; an Internet-based full-text resource.
r Yes
r No
I am using the same library assignment I’ve always used; it still works well and accomplishes its goals.
r Yes
r No
I would like to develop a library assignment that accomplishes goals that have recently been redesigned.
r Yes
r No
Student frustration in using the library should be considered a normal part of learning how to use the library.
r Yes
r No
Librarians should help me by teaching my students how to use the library.
r Yes
r No
I need to incorporate internet-based resources and web sites but am unsure how to accomplish this.
r Yes
r No
Students should be able to learn needed library skills in my discipline quickly and independently.
r Yes
r No
Prepared for inclusion in mailing to academic department heads, August 1998

EXAMPLES OF INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT

LIBRARY RESEARCH PAPER PLANNER: LIFE SCIENCES

copy and use as often as necessary to help you plan your research approach

IDENTIFY RESOURCES GATHER EVALUATE CHECK-OUT/COPY USE

DUE DATE:

INTERIM DUE DATES: draft _______ working bibliography: _____ other:

TOPIC (in a few words, e.g., wetlands habitat)

Now that you have identified a general topic, generate a Specific Research Question that interests you, e.g, How has wetland restoration affected the wildlife which use this habitat? State your question below.

NATURE OF ASSIGNMENT: rresearch paper r presentation

LENGTH: number of page, minutes, etc.:

If specified by professor, how many of what kinds of library materials:

____ general books (LUIS) ____ reference sources (print/online/LUIS) ____ magazine articles (ProQuest, Academic Universe) ____ journal articles (ProQuest or subject-specific journal indexes) ____ newspaper articles (ProQuest Direct or Academic Universe or other newspaper-specific indexes ____ Internet

Other:
 
 
If I Need
What I'll Use
Encyclopedia articles  Reference Collection (first see if a helpful title is listed on the Life Sciences: Selected Resources handout; use either LUIS or ask a librarian at the Info Desk); for very general coverage, use the online Encyclopedia Brittanica (Library Home Page à Ready Reference); see other Science-related resource guides on the Library's Information Rack, 1st floor
One or more general books LUIS (first, decide on one or more terms you might need to use, then use either subject or keyword searching; sometimes consulting the Library of Congress Subject Headings volumes in the Library can help you figure out terms to use)
One or more basic magazine articles ProQuest or Academic Universe (both online)
One or more focussed, research-based articles Print: Biological Abstracts and/or Science Citation Index (review handouts, online guides, remember, ISU Library will not have all articles indexes); ask about other subject-specific indexes in Reference collection
One or more focussed, research-based articles Electronic: ProQuest; discipline-specific indexes/full-text databases
Specific facts/figures Reference Collection (handbooks, manuals, statistical sources… try LUIS but sometimes it's easiest just to ask!
Internet sites ISU Library's Subject Browser, Internet Search Tools page (especially Argus Clearinghouse, WWW Virtual Library, Yahoo)

Step 1: probably LUIS or ProQuest or Academic Universe

For each source you use, generate a list of likely terms you are going to enter as subject and/or keyword. Save your results. Internet-based materials usually include print, download and/or email options.

Term: Results (quantity):

Term: Results (quantity):

List problems/questions you encounter that you will need to check with a librarian or your professor:

Step 2: List the source you are using here:

Term: Results (quantity):

Term: Results (quantity):

List problems/questions you encounter that you will need to check with a librarian or your professor:

Step 3: List the source you are using here:

Term: Results (quantity):

Term: Results (quantity):

List problems/questions you encounter that you will need to check with a librarian or your professor:

Step 4: List the source you are using here:

Term: Results (quantity):

Term: Results (quantity):

List problems/questions you encounter that you will need to check with a librarian or your professor:

Getting Help in Using the Indiana State University Library...

Electronic Reference via the Library Home Page: http://library.indstate.eduChoose Mail Us. Choose Electronic Reference. Fill out the form and submit.

Online Research Guides: http://library.indstate.eduChoose Quick Reference. Choose Help Guides for ISU Library Research. Includes help with LUIS III, specific subject areas with both library and Internet resources; Internet-specific.

Requesting Materials Not Held by ISU Library: http://library.indstate.eduChoose Interlibrary Loan. Choose Book or Photocopy Request form. Fill out and submit. Must allow at least 7-14 working days for request to be (hopefully) filled.

Information Desk (Main Floor, Cunningham Memorial Library) -- (812) 237-2580 or libdavi@cml.indstate.edu

Library Instruction & Orientation (2nd floor, Cunningham Memorial Library, Room D3) -- (812) 237-2604 or marshamiller@indstate.edu

Office of Library Instruction & Orientation, Indiana State University, Terre Haute IN – marshamiller@indstate.edu


Life Science 101 Library Experience -- Fall 1998

Indiana State University

General Objectives:

  1. Students will search the scientific (primary) journal literature to find articles related to their experiments, research interests, etc.
  2. Students will properly cite their findings.
  3. Students will learn about the scientific abstract.
  4. Students will retrieve articles available in the local library.
  5. Students will learn where basic science reference materials are, both print and electronic
  6. Students will become acquainted with interlibrary loan procedures.
Before coming the the Library session:
  1. Receive and read thru the following handouts:

    2.  

     

    Using Magazine Indexes

    Science Citation Index

    Biological Abstracts

    Citing Electronic Information Sources

  2. From the Life Sciences web page, connect to the Library's Electronic Reserve (or go there directly at http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/reserve.dir/course2.html

    3.  

     

    Find Stevens Lifs 101: ID:stevens Password: lifs101. Scan the items located there. Note: these are PDF files (and require that the computer you're using have Acrobat Reader installed.) Be sure you OPEN them; do not SAVE TO DISK unless you really want to (even though that's the default). Feel free to print them if you like.

  3. Internet-based Information: Visit one web site from Category A (general) and one from Category B (Scientific). For each site, print off Page 1 of the web site. Save the print-outs, they will be attached to the library exercise you will receive later.
  1. General Sites about Citing

    2.  

     

    What's a Citation, and How Do I Interpret It?: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/instruct/pubs/citation.html

    Essential Elements of a Journal or Magazine Citation (University of Arkansas): http://www.uark.edu/libinfo/refdept/instruction/citation.html

    Examples of Style Manuals: http://www.uark.edu/libinfo/refdept/instruction/style.html

    Citation Guides for Electronic Documents: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/I/training/citation/citing.htm

    How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill28.htm

    Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill20.html

  2. Sites specific to Scientific Literature/Resources
Using Scientific Literature in Biology Courses (Earlham College): http://www.earlham.edu/~libr/libinfo/wildman/biocite.htm

Citation Search Tutorial (from UIUC): http://soma.npa.uiuc.edu/courses/physl490b/cite_search.html

This will walk you through a search of the literature using Science Citation Index, but a citation search is different than a subject/term search (steps are similar!)

American Chemical Society Style Sheet: http://www.lehigh.edu/~inhelp/footnote/acs.html

The Cycle of Scientific Literature: http://www.tufts.edu/as/biology/classes/bio14liba/cycle.htm

Links from the ISU Library's Subject Browser http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/brownew.html :

General Science: http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/browser.html#GENSCI ;

Life Sciences: http://library.indstate.edu/level1.dir/browser.html#LIFE

 Internet Reference Resources for the Life Sciences: http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/library_info/departments/life/guides/ref-libr.html

Science Citation Index®: Searching a Subject: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem/cheminfo/cistudio/module4/prtsciperm.html

Converting to ACS Format: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem/cheminfo/cistudio/module4/prtsciacs.html

Biology Resources & Research Featured Student Papers (Earlham College): http://www.earlham.edu/~libr/libinfo/wildman/biopaper.htm

Scientific Citation for Electronic Sources (Morningside College): http://library.morningside.edu/scistyle.htm -- this is an extrapolation of CBE style

After the Library session:

Complete the exercise that will be distributed. There will be both print and electronic components to the exercise.
 

 Indiana State University, Library Instruction & Orientation -- October 1998 marshamiller@indstate.edu

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