What Do You Mean This Isn T Scholarly?

What do you mean this isn’t scholarly? Teaching Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

Megan Dempsey, Raritan Valley Community College Melissa Hofmann, Rider University VALE Information Literacy Workshop June 7, 2010

Online Resources for teaching scholarly vs. popular sources: All of these are tagged at http://delicious.com/bookchic831/scholarlyjournalsresources

Libguides and Handouts: http://lib.utsa.edu/Research/Subject/scholarlyguide.html http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/scholarly/guide.html http://library.weber.edu/ref/guides/howto/scholarlyarticles.cfm http://library.duke.edu/services/instruction/libraryguide/scholarlyjournal.html http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill20.html

Interactive Tutorials http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~estec/tutorials/scholarly.htm (Rutgers) – explains peer-review and uses a “memory exercise” comparing peer review to sports referees; describes how to use Ulrich’s to determine if a periodical is peer-reviewed http://www.mbc.edu/grafton/Scholarlyorpopular.swf (Mary Baldwin College) – begins with a set of questions student answer, tutorial then tells them if the article is scholarly or popular; discusses how to find scholarly articles http://library.raritanval.edu/research/idscholarlyart.asp (Raritan Valley Community College) – webpage comparing features of scholarly and popular sources. Includes screenshots of what to look for when looking at articles in a database

Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDGJ2CYfY9A (Cornell) “Research minute” videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeyR30Yq1tA (Vanderbilt University) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqcyLNpoNCU (Oklahoma Community College); uses CNN.com Health section article as popular and referencing New England Journal of Medicine; shows EbscoHost. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GDAoJF6wug (David L. Rice Library, University of Southern Indiana). More static, slide images and words with voice over. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W3oPx3VedE&NR=1 (University of Arkansas Library) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urCFhPJRhbI&feature=related (Lynn University) Gives reasons why general/popular magazines are helpful (background research); gives example of Scientific American; when and why you should use scholarly articles; drawbacks: cheesy background music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL3pNZu3O1Q “What is Peer Review: A Brief Introduction” ; mostly text based with voice over; uses EbscoHost screenshot to show limit to peer review and asks what does this mean? Further reading:

Bronshteyn, Karen and Kathryn Tvaruzka. “Using Google Scholar at the Reference Desk. ” Googlization of Libraries. Eds. William Miller and Rita M. Pellen. New York : Routledge, 2009. 110-119.

Dahl, Candice. “Undergraduate Research in the Public Domain: The Evaluation of Non-Academic Sources Online.” Reference Services Review 37.2 (2009): 155-163.

Argues for a more contextual approach for evaluating non-academic online sources, where traditional checklists and conceptions of “peer-reviewed” and “academic” do not apply. The non-mechanistic approach discussed here could inform our strategies in teaching “scholarly” versus “popular.”

Deitering, Anne Marie. “Using Wikipedia to Eavesdrop on the Scholarly Conversation.” Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0. Ed. Peter Godwin and Jo Parker. London: Facet, 2008. 87-93.

Discusses the value of using Wikipedia to introduce students to the concepts of knowledge creation and the scholarly conversation by having them analyze a Wikipedia article’s history (versioning, various revisions for content and neutral point of view) and discussion pages. This also helps make the concept of peer review more accessible to students.

Miller, William and Rita M. Pellen, eds. Google Scholar and More: New Google Applications and Tools for Library Users. New York : Routledge, 2009.

Potter, Charlie. “Standing on the Shoulders of Libraries: A Holisitic and Rhetorical Approach to Teaching Google Scholar.” Googlization of Libraries. Eds. William Miller and Rita M. Pellen. New York : Routledge, 2009. 5-28.

Examines the implications of libraries endorsing Google Scholar, especially with the relative invisibility of and cost to libraries in the contribution to Google Scholar’s success and the differing motivations of libraries (non- profit) and Google (for-profit) in the providing of information. Food for thought in teaching students about scholarly information in relation to our proprietary databases, especially in terms of the unknowablity of Google Scholar’s comprehensiveness and timeliness and its lacks of a “peer reviewed” search option.

Lesson Plan/Activity Resources:

Cook, Douglas, and Ryan L. Sittler, eds. Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors: 17 Innovative Strategies to Improve Student Learning. Chicago, Association of College and Research Libraries, 2008.

Sittler, Ryan L. and Douglas Cook, eds. The Library Instruction Cookbook. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2009.

VOILA Information Literacy Archive. VALE New Jersey. http://valevoila.wetpaint.com/

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. California State University. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

PRIMO: Peer Reviewed Instructional Materials Online Database. ALA ACRL Instruction Section. http://www.ala.org/apps/primo/public/search.cfm