WHAT DO OUR STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW FOR COLLEGE?
Are we adequately preparing our students for university–level research? Do K-12 information literacy skills match those needed by students in college? Join Esther Grassian, the Information Literacy Outreach Coordinator at UCLA College Library, and other librarians and teachers as we discuss our role as advocates for lifelong learning.
presented by Karen Phillips, Brentwood School Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library [[email protected]] Lynn Lampert, CSU, Northridge [[email protected]] 1. WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS YOU SEE IN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH?
ESTHER GRASSIAN -- Students don’t know the difference between popular and scholarly material.
Students often don’t know that libraries have free access to articles and other materials – they need to be reminded that they may not have to pay for articles themselves, as the library may have subscriptions that include the articles they want.
LYNN LAMPERT – Pointed out that the CSUN library is not heavily solely designed for faculty research use; the focus of their instructional programming is more on how to improve student learning.
She notices that students have problems with topic development; there is student insecurity on developing a topic for papers. She works with them on current events topics; giving them motivation to think about a topic that might be interesting to them.
She suggests that we practice brainstorming about topics and teach students how to narrow a topic down.
We need to teach students when and how to utilize resources; understanding the difference in scholarly materials; how research is done in the world.
She discusses plagiarism by showing the ramifications of current incidents involving Dan Brown, James Frey and other popular authors.
Students think they are cheating if they use another’s information; don’t know how to balance their research notes with their personal thoughts.
She stressed that confidence is a major issue – students don’t realize what the reference desk is for; there is a reluctance to come up and ask for help and an “I don’t want to bother you” mentality.
1 At CSUN, she notices that some kids don’t have libraries and they don’t use their public libraries, so there needs to be greater marketing of libraries all around.
She also sees an inability to ask good questions; we need to teach kids how to ask intelligent questions [in a reference interview].
2. WHAT TYPES OF RESEARCH PROJECTS DO UNDERGRADUATES DO?
LYNN LAMPERT – at CSUN, more professors are assigning annotated bibliography projects to get students to see why they need to use a particular source.
“Research proposals” are popular at CSUN – asking to students to determine “here’s my topic, here’s how narrow, broad, etc.” Projects focus on asking students to think about topics and to investigate the topic further.
Sees an issue the college faculty assume that students know how to cite their sources and that every student knows how to use their “brand” of citations; the poor student is left trying to figure out the difference between APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.
Faculty at CSUN are hesitant to use citation programs like Noodlebib – in site citation is the place where plagiarism is happening and they feel that students need to know how to cite.
At CSUN, research projects are often broken apart; scaffolding is popular, assigning projects in stages. There is also an emphasis on student presentations.
AP students seem pretty well-prepared; they are receiving assignments that are well- structured and ask a lot of questions.
2 There is more emphasis on projects that allow students to use only one internet site and have it not be a .com; students are asked to use print resources and articles.
Research assignments that ask for “only one reference source” or other limits can be confusing; students are unclear about what a reference source is, for example.
Lynn tries to wean faculty away from scavenger hunts in the library – they are too general and often don’t allow student success.
ESTHER GRASSIAN -- Scavenger hunts in the library are useless because they frustrate students and result in librarians finding answers and handing them to the students. Librarians want students to feel good about finding information and to feel that they are successful in their research; therefore, students will understand the value of library resources and want to come back.
She emphasized that teachers give clear written assignments; students need to bring the assignment with them to the library. The first question librarians ask is, "Do you have a written copy of your assignment?" Students often forget portions of or misinterpret their assignments.
She notices that students don’t always want to use the encyclopedias; yet the UCLA library has many specialized encyclopedias. They are great for introducing students to a topic and should be emphasized.
UCLA is on a ten-week quarter system; timing is a challenge – students can’t slack off because the pace is so quick.
There is more availability of online help on the library website, including free tutorials. [“Road to Research”
3
There was an L.A. Times article last year about teachers not assigning papers since they couldn’t handle the grading workload; noted that students aren’t being prepared for college level work if they are not taken through the process of doing a research paper in stages.
There is an exercise on the UCLA library website that helps students distinguish different types of materials; often they can’t distinguish an article between a popular magazine or a journal: “Which is Which? What is Where?”
RefWorks – Esther reported that they use this tool (licensed software) at UC Berkeley; you can click on a link in a database and put it in a bibiliography (http://www.refworks.com)
Reminded educators/students that we shouldn’t always trust databases for citation style; many of them don’t have great success in citing; tell students not to trust the citations that are on these websites.
3. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET OUR JUNIORS AND SENIORS TO VISIT A COLLEGE LIBRARY BEFORE THEY GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL?
ESTHER GRASSIAN -- You can have students visit, however the library catalog is also available freely online; if you have a specific need or project to have them use the library, it’s advisable to search the catalog first and to contact the library staff; told the story of a teacher at a high school that sent their class to the library without calling the librarians. It is best to have students go to online databases first that you subscribe to or that public libraries subscribe to, identify materials they cannot get elsewhere, check the UCLA Library Catalog
4 web page on the UCLA College Library web site, called “Basic Research Databases”, listing and linking to commonly used databases available through public libraries, as well as at UCLA:
LYNN LAMPERT – CSUN has selected schools that have an AP relationship with the library; she recommends that the best bet is to develop a relationship with the outreach librarian at the university; CSUN has a teacher curriculum center, as well.
Can’t give the attention that students need if there are surprise visits without preparation. If a teachers calls ahead, the librarians will try their best to fully plan out a visit for a class.
She suggests doing “prework” – here’s my topic, here’s the type of resources I should use; here’s what my school library has and here’s what I need, etc.
If students leave frustrated, they won’t feel like it’s a helpful place.
Encourage parents to ask their their kids to take ownership for topics – part of the process in the “maturation of research” – don’t let them do the research for them.
KAREN PHILLIPS – she tells all her AP classes that you are expected to use the school library first, a good public library second, and use the university as the last resort; convinces them to use the Los Angeles Public Library, even the downtown branch.
ESTHER GRASSIAN – let students practice online using remote databases; know the three most important criteria for evaluating a database – she teaches students to look for 1) what topics are included, 2) what types of materials does it provide, and 3) what time period does it cover?
5 Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) is a can of worms – difficult to use the above criteria to evaluate Google Scholar, as it’s still in beta and Google has not indicated its scope, unlike paid subscription databases; she has more info on Google Scholar on the UCLA library website:
KAREN PHILLIPS – they had some great results with Google Scholar for a research paper – found some wonderful stuff.
Karen likes to see her seniors get their feet wet at the university library; they can try to find their way around the stacks, understand the Library of Congress cataloging system, etc. so that things that won’t be a “giant shock” when they get to college.
LYNN LAMPERT – sees students searching Amazon for their books, which is understandable since it’s an attractive interface. Ease of access for this generation is an issue; she recommends that we work with them on using primary sources; often, history grad students don’t understand that university libraries are archives of treasures that they won’t ever find on Google; this is a great reason to go to the college library.
4. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN LEARN HERE?
LYNN LAMPERT – teach students about “targeted inquiry;” whatever college service you are looking for, have some questions in mind; students wander and feel that they are bothering people. Let them know that the university staff wants to be there and enjoys working with college students; she sees a reluctance to ask questions – they want to ask the question of the computer, and therefore chat reference is popular. They often e-mail questions while they are in the library!
Try to get students to get away from thinking the first draft is the last draft; teach them about evaluating sources and to ask why you are there and how to develop what you need to ask - -this is important in the library and in life.
6 ESTHER GRASSIAN – question, question, question! She recommends assigning a research paper in stages – (UCLA has a topic narrowing site on their website:
7 QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE
1. FROM AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE, CAN YOU RECOMMEND WHAT CAN BE DONE AT THE K-6 STAGE?
LYNN LAMPERT – her husband teaches in an area with disadvantaged kids; she stressed the importance of topic choice and evaluation, and ownership and caring about a topic. He asks students to create an interest and to answer “why do I care about a topic?”; prepare students to understand why you use one resource over another; teache them that nothing is free – where are you getting this information from? Where are the stories coming from? Is this a personal story, a biography, etc? Explain why sources are different. Teach students to understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction; teach them how to broaden their topic.
KAREN PHILLIPs – she recommends that librarians get teachers to insist that they students do “hardcopy” work first – get background information from a print encyclopedia or find a book; there is so much misinformation on the web that she wishes students would start with print to get their feet wet.
2. HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS ARE EAGER TO ASSIGN RESEARCH PROJECTS THAT REQUIRE STUDENTS TO FIND JOURNAL ARTICLES IN DATABASES AT JSTOR. SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE STUDENTS DON’T REALLY KNOW HOW TO READ ARTICLES AT THAT LEVEL. DO YOU SEE THIS AT THE UNIVERSITY, TOO?
ESTHER GRASSIAN – there are some issues with JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org); the reading level is very high and people think it’s easy to use and comprehensive; but publishers don’t give the user the last five to seven years of articles, and they don’t include all the important journals in a subject area. She recommends that students use Infotrac instead, or a similar magazine database and limit their search to peer-reviewed articles; from there, they can learn how to distinguish between articles in popular magazines and scholarly journals.
LYNN LAMPERT – CQ Researcher always connects with her freshmen; she presents a current topic and they look for more information.
8 She suggests that teachers teach students to read a scholarly article as an art, as a skill to take them all the way to grad school.
ESTHER GRASSIAN -- recommends Joan Bechtel’s “Conversation, a new Paradigm for Librarianship” (Bechtel, Joan M. "Conversation, a New Paradigm for Librarianship?" College & Research Libraries 47 (May 1986): 219-224.) – this is a great way to help students understand scholarly inquiry and peer review, and to understand the role of the librarian in this process.
9