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College Writing Information Literacy Toolkit

This Toolkit helps faculty and librarians navigate the College Writing Course relationship.

Assistance from the Class Librarian

Your class Librarian can provide assistance in helping you design effective research assignments or in-class activities that help you more effectively convey information literacy concepts, such as authority is contextual or information has value.

Research Assignment Tips

Clarity

  • Be specific: explain what you mean by "scholarly" or "peer reviewed".
  • If you discourage the use of "websites" be sure to clarify what that means and that web-based research databases subscribed to by the library are acceptable.
  • Don't assume students understand how to differentiate between primary and secondary sources.
  • Help students avoid pitfalls by suggesting specific databases or other library resources by name to students.

Work with your librarian to devise shared vocabulary.

Library Resources

  • Check to see that the Library has the resources students need to complete the assignment, especially if you haven't used the assignment/activity in a while or teach at multiple institutions. Oftentimes, the library will not have an item in print, but will have it electronically. 
  • Refer to the databases by name and not by vendor (i.e.: Academic Search Complete is the name of the database, EBSCO or EBSCO Host is the vendor).
  • Be sure to include the full titles of journals or other resources.
  • If multiple students are going to be accessing the same resources, put items on physical or electronic course reserves.