Scientific Lit Sleuth

Subject Area(s):

• K-12: General

Grade Level(s):

• First Year
• Lower level
• Upper Level
• Graduate

Description:

Students are given a bibliography from a journal article and asked to locate an article from this bibliography using library resources.

Goals & Objectives:

• This activity takes students through the real-world example of deciphering a citation from a bibliography and locating the cited article.
• Primary objective is to enable students to synthesize the information retrieval skills they have acquired in their Information Literacy class(es).  The following skills will be reinforced:

1. Interpreting a citation.
2. Determining availability of materials in the physical library.
3. Determining availability of electronic access.
4. Importance of tracing scientific literature via references to relevant articles.

Materials:

• Students must have computer use including access to library catalog and online materials.

• Bibliography from a journal article OR individual citations.  Ideally, these citations should contain abbreviated journal titles.  The instructor must pre-determine availability of all articles prior to assigning to students. 

• Worksheet to record information.

Procedures:

1. This in-class activity is given after students have had instruction in the use of the library catalog and databases.
2. Students are provided with a bibliography from a journal article with one or more articles highlighted.
3. Students will need to interpret the citation and identify the journal title from an abbreviated title.  They will also need to identify the article title and the primary author.
4. From the journal title, students are asked to determine if the article is available in print using the library catalog.  They must record the physical location of the journal.
5. Students are then required to determine if we have electronic access to this particular article.
6. Other routes of access (Google scholar and interlibrary loan) are then suggested.

Assessment:

This lesson is used twice during the Information Literacy class, about mid-way through the class and again near the end of the class. Students are initially stymied by this real-world example. In general, by the end of the class most students can correctly interpret a citation and determine availability of a given article.

Supporting Files:

• Scientific_Lit_Sleuth.doc
  

Standards:

ACRL Standards (Higher Education IL Standards)

Accesses needed information effectively and efficiently

• Retrieves information online or in person using a variety of methods