Collaborating for a Cure: Moving Students Beyond the Online Quick Fix
May 14, 2004
Fremont Public Library
Approximately 100 librarians attended the California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction (CCLI) workshop, Collaborating for a Cure: Moving Students Beyond the Online Quick Fix, on May 14, 2004 at the Fremont Public Library. This was a record turnout — about double the usual attendance. Its success can be attributed to the theme, which resonates with many librarians who are struggling to keep the value of library resources and quality research methodologies alive in the Internet age, the many wonderful speakers and presentations, and also the members of CCLI program planning committee who envisioned and organized this event:Mari Miller, Scott Hines, Linda Goff, Carol Hall, Reza Peigahi, Sharon Radcliff and Betty Ronayne.
The day began with a video on high school student research behaviors, presented by Linda Goff, Head of Instruction at California State University Library, Sacramento. Real World Research Strategies by Joyce Valenza, Springfield Township High School, showed that these students think the library is obsolete and do their research almost totally on the web. The audience chuckled when one student commented that a valid search strategy is finding web pages “with as many of my search terms in it.” However, several attendees acknowledged that these behaviors are not unique to high school students, but also prevalent at their institutions at the University and adult-learner levels, as well.
Dr. Ilene Rockman, Manager of the Information Competence Initiative at CSU Office of the Chancellor, then spoke on New Direction in Library Instruction. Ilene’s presentation focused on information literacy initiatives and the importance of faculty support. Ilene suggested that “to move students beyond over reliance on the web, information literacy has to be reinforced throughout the curriculum — horizontally through general education courses, but also vertically through the majors.” She offered many practical tips and solutions for how to achieve these goals. For example, one way to motivate and engage faculty is to share the research data on student retention, which shows that students with information literacy skills have higher rates of retention and success later in life. Another way is to read their literature and speak the language of their disciplines. Pointing out where their own literature documents the importance of information literacy for the future success of students can be a powerful persuasive tool, and she shared many resources for doing this. She also highlighted new partnerships and initiatives that are on the horizon. Ilene has recently published Integrating Information Literacy into the Higher Education Curriculum: Practical Models for Transformation, Jossey-Bass, April 2004, ISBN 0-7879-6527-8.
John Kupersmith, Reference/Instruction Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley, then spoke on Creating Effective Student Research Assignments.John’s presentation focused on developing productive assignments and working with faculty by building on common goals and stating learning objectives. Creating good library assignments is important because first-learned research behaviors effect how students and professors will use the library later on. John asked the audience for examples of problem assignments they have experienced. He then explained that students who go to the web are just exercising adaptive behavior in a tough situation. John explained the concept of satisficing in which the students’ approach to research is setting a goal of attaining “good enough” results. Nevertheless, there are several things we can do to work with faculty to create good assignments and provide alternatives to the online quick fix. A good library assignment does not impose unnecessary stress, engages student’s interest, and involves the student in higher-order skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information. The role of the professor and librarian in designing assignments is to define learning objectives and to provide a structure to teach the research process. John gave examples of assignments that can be adapted to any research topic, has created a website which contains even more examples, and his excellent bibliography comments on new tools and trends in the research environment.
Mary Reddick, Head of Online Curriculum Library Services at CSU Sacramento Library, began the afternoon session with a talk on Reframing Library Technologies To Promote Use and Collaboration. She began her presentation with a philosophical look at the post-modern world and its impact on library services. With changes in academia that include digitalization of information, networked communities and interdisciplinary scholarship, librarians should examine more deeply the ideas behind learning communities and learning styles. As a response to the trend toward faculty creating more course related web pages, she and others at CSUS developed a software program called Locus: Online Memory Palace, which can be used to create customized resource pages for students. A faculty person with no coding experience can create a page with links to various online web and library resources, and integrate these sources into syllabi and assignments also placed within the Locus program.
The workshop concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Wendy Diamond, Head of Reference Services, Meriam Library, CSU Chico on Challenges to Moving Students Beyond Google Searching.
Panel members included Julian Marshall, a student and expert online searcher, Wendy Packman, a professor of psychology, and Librarians Mari Miller, John Kupersmith and Linda Goff. The discussion explored the realities of doing research and strategies for more effective communication and collaboration. Many ideas were shared from both the audience and panel members, including solutions to the problem involving a multi-tiered approach. Librarians can also benefit by redesigning web pages to be more user-friendly and by reading the literature from communications, psychology, marketing and education research pertaining to electronic media, social change and cultural shifts.
The materials from John Kupersmith’s talk are available at: http://www.jkup.net; and LOCUS can be seen at: http://locus.csus.edu/locus2005.
This article was a collaborative effort by Mari Miller, Carol Hall, Scott Hines, Reza Peigahi and Sharon Radcliff.