Scaffolding for Information Literacy: Educational Scaffolding

Welcome to the Library

Have students watch our 4-minute video introduction to the library. Video can be watched individually or as a group.

Video: Library Intro Video

• Do a scavenger hunt for basic items located within the library and via the library's website to help familiarize students with all the library has to offer.
• Have a book on Course Reserve and have students take a picture with it.

Locating and Accessing Books

Have students locate books, chapters, and related materials within the library. This will introduce student usage of the Library of Congress call numbers, the catalog, and library's organizational structure.

• Provide students with the title and author of a physical book located on the shelves. Have students search the catalog for the call number, and locate the book in the stacks. From there, they can take a picture with the book, answer questions about a chapter, or take pictures of the title page to prove they completed the task.
• Provide students with the title and author of an eBook and have them locate it within the catalog. Have students access the book, and complete a short assignment based on its contents.

Locating and Accessing Library Resources

Teach students how to access articles and databases. Educating students about scholarly resources will ensure they are not relying solely on Google for future research projects. Have students watch the library videos on researching.

Video: Library Videos 2-5

• Give your students a citation and have them locate the article based on the citation's information.
• Have students locate an article based on a topic of their choice and complete an annotated bibliography based on its contents.

Conducting Preliminary Research

Students should learn to gather information on their topics without relying on Wikipedia or Google. Learning what reputable sources can be used to gather background information will be beneficial to the research process.

• Provide students with a general topic and ask them to conduct their research using library resources. Have them then provide sub-topics that are too broad and too specific based on the sources they were able to pull as a result.
• Have students compare Wikipedia results to results they are able to find in Encyclopedias and Reference Databases.

Differentiating Source Types

Help students learn to discern what type of source they are using. Many students experience difficulty determining the quality of sources. Activities like this will help students learn the difference between each type of source and when to use them.

• Provide books, journal articles, magazine articles, blogs, etc. and have students identify the differences. Have students utilize the CRAAP Method when doing so.
• Complete these tutorials: 
  • Scholarly or Popular?
  • Evaluating Information Sources

Searching Databases

Have students learn to search databases efficiently and effectively. Effectively utilizing keywords, operators, and search techniques will lead to an improved research experience.

This is a great opportunity to contact your librarian about scheduling an Instruction Session.

• Have students create a mind-mapping activity to generate keywords surrounding their topic. Students should then group the keywords into different combinations, enter them into the catalog or database, and see how changing those combinations impact the search outcome.
• Complete this tutorial: Library Search Basics