Start your session with a question (Who cheats more in college - men or women? Is it OK for professors to date students?) and explain to students that we will look for the answer in several different types of resources. Sometimes I put students into groups, let each group explore a resource (catalog for books, Academic Search Premier for articles, LexisNexis for news etc.), and then have someone from each group show the class what they have found. Their steps and missteps make for excellent teachable moments; during the process, there are frequent opportunities to point out the salient features of databases, better ways to search and more. This approach can be applied in a 50-minute session or a longer session, if desired.
University Libraries at the University of Cincinnati has established a set of core information literacy competencies. These competencies reflect the national standards as set forth by ACRL, but are tailored to the UC environment. In the first college year we focus on building foundational skills and this question-based 50 minute session is focused on meeting the following objectives:
1. Ability to locate and use the University Libraries Web page
2. Understanding of the differences between academic resources and those available on a free Internet site
3. Ability to conduct a search in a major interdisciplinary database
See description above.
When time allows, we use the "one-minute" paper or "what would you do differently now that you've been to the library" questions for on-the-spot assessment. The ultimate assessment rests, of course, in the quality of their composition papers.
ACRL Standards (Higher Education IL Standards)
Accesses needed information effectively and efficiently