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Library Toolbox for Faculty

Ideas for helping students navigate the information ecosystem

 

Resources and assignments are organized by categories below.  Choose a tab to see the items in a given category. Frames addressed by each resource are listed at the end of the descriptions.

Quick Ideas

  • Encourage students to shift their thinking. 

Instead of seeing research as simply finding information, ask them to think of research as a process by which communities solve problems.

Research as Inquiry


 

Tutorials


 

Pedagogical Resources

Quick Ideas

  • Encourage students to shift their thinking.

​Explain that research is never finished with just one search. Suggest that research is iterative. One search provides words and ideas to employ in the next search. Your first or fifth search may cause you to change your research question or start to look in new places. 

Searching as Strategic Exploration


 

Tutorials


 


 

Activities

 

Searching as Strategic Exploration

Authority is Constructed and Contextual


 

Quick Ideas

  • Encourage students to shift their thinking. 

Instead of thinking that some types of information are good for college-level research and some types of information are bad for college-level research, ask students to think about whether the information they are considering can help them solve the information problem that they have.

Ask them to think about the purpose and the author of information rather than the format in determining the value of information in their research.

Information has Value
Information Creation as Process
Authority is Constructed and Contextual


 

Tutorials


 

Videos


 

Activities


 


 

Quick Ideas

  • Encourage students to shift their thinking.  

Instead of conceiving of themselves as consumers of information who only produce assignments for grading, ask them to think of themselves as producers of information who can add their voices to ongoing conversations.

Scholarship as Conversation
Information has Value


 

  • Encourage students to shift their thinking again. 

Instead of seeing documentation only as a means to avoid plagiarism, ask them to look at documentation as a way of entering into the conversations going on in a particular field or debate. Suggest that learning the language and conventions of documentation gives authority to their own writing.

Scholarship as Conversation
Authority is Constructed and Contextual


 

  • Explain Why

If you ask students to use or consult a particular source that is important for your field, explain why it is a reliable, trusted source for experts who are working in your discipline.

Authority is Constructed and Contextual

Information has Value


 

Tutorials


 

Videos


 

Activities


 

St. Louis Community College Libraries

Florissant Valley Campus Library
3400 Pershall Rd.
Ferguson, MO 63135-1408
Phone: 314-513-4514

Forest Park Campus Library
5600 Oakland
St. Louis, MO 63110-1316
Phone: 314-644-9210

Meramec Campus Library
11333 Big Bend Road
St. Louis, MO 63122-5720
Phone: 314-984-7797

Wildwood Campus Library
2645 Generations Drive
Wildwood, MO 63040-1168
Phone: 636-422-2000