Student assignments don’t always address academic needs

Why are students asked to write as if they were doing an article for JStor instead of the New York Times Magazine? Then we wonder why they can’t effectively paraphrase and avoid plagiarism.
http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/blogs/library_babel_fish/sources_of_confusion      
http://projectinfolit.org/st/howard-jamieson.asp

Not so savvy searchers

Higher Ed article indicates that a “two-year, five-campus ethnographic study examining how students view and use their campus libraries: students rarely ask librarians for help, even when they need it. The idea of a librarian as an academic expert who is available to talk about assignments and hold their hands through the research process is, in fact, foreign to most students.”

“Librarians and professors are also partially to blame for the gulf that has opened between students and the library employees who are supposed to help them…”

http://bit.ly/qYOOum

How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age

How do students evaluate information and use it once they have found it? What difficulties do students encounter with research for courses and for personal use from start to finish? Read the Project Information Literacy Report  and watch the video

Library CONNection

UConn  Blog (Storrs) covering library related information.
http://uconnlibrary.wordpress.com/

Information Literacy Value Rubric

Released by AACU…

Definition: The ability to  know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information at hand.
www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/pdf/InformationLiteracy.pdf

Library Space: Tell us what you think!

We have been renovating and remodeling to increase study space and now would like to know how we’re doing.  Our brief survey will guide our next steps so that we may make the library a better place to study. CLICK HERE

Students Lack Basic Research Skills, Study Finds

All the talk about thinking outside the box is not happening for students doing reasearch, since  searching is typically with Google and those sites that are familiar. Worthwhile article from the Chronicle with relevant video from  Project Information Literary. Other links to the Project Information Report   http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/communityacademiclibraries/887643-419/truth_or_dare__peer.html.csp
http://projectinfolit.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBFjh3xxGM

New ebooks added to our collection

The Libraries’ growing collection of ebooks now includes a variety of titles that work closely with our programs.  Ebooks may be accessed directly from Homer, the Libraries’ catalog with your netID and password.

Anthropology
21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook 

Social Work/Psychology/Urban Studies/Communications
The SAGE Handbook of Social Work Research
The SAGE Handbook of Quantitative Methods in Psychology
The Psychology Research Handbook
The Handbook of Parenting
Encyclopedia of Counseling The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Discourse
The SAGE Handbook of Nonverbal Communication
The SAGE Handbook of Methods in Social Psychology Handbook of Implicit Cognition and Addiction Handbook of Adoption The Handbook of Communication Science The Handbook of Community Practice The SAGE Handbook of Health Psychology The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication Encyclopedia of Disability
Marketing/Advertising The SAGE Handbook of International Marketing
The SAGE Handbook of Advertising
Education
The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction
The SAGE Handbook of E-learning Research
The SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research
The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership
The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies
21st Century Sociology Encyclopedia of Educational Encyclopedia of Law and Society Reform and Dissent 21st Century Education Encyclopedia of Education Law

Plagiarism in the News

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age
(New York Times, (By TRIP GABRIEL Published: August 1, 2010)
Here’s yet another plagiarism tidbit that sheds light on a generation that has grown up digital.  Useful anecdotal data on  issues of ignorance vs.  malice when it comes to students’ inability to know when to cite.

Have you tried UConn Worldcat yet?

It’s the closest thing we have to Google….for more information click.