Instructional services

Criteria for effective library assignments

The following criteria will provide you with some guidance when developing or re-evaluating library assignments.

Relevance

• Relate your assignment to the topics, subjects, and/or the texts being discussed in class.

Purpose

• Provide clear objectives and directions for completing your assignment.

Flexibility

• Provide a variety of topics from which your students can choose.
• Provide a list of various resources your students can consult.
• Date ranges, when included, should be flexible enough to accomodate all of the topics chosen by your students.

Accuracy

• Provide correct titles, locations, and call numbers when suggesting materials to consult.

Doable

• Make sure the assignment is appropriate to the knowledge/skill level(s) of your students.
• Make sure that there is sufficient information available at the Libraries for the topics chosen by your students.
• Make the due date/time frame realistic based on the availability of materials.

Free of library jargon

• Define terms such as "abstract" vs. "annotation," "citation," "index," "scholarly journal" vs. "popular magazines" if you include them in your verbal or written directions.

Fosters critical thinking

• An intregal part of doing research is evaluating the information found.
• This could translate into requiring annotations (critical interpretations) to bibliographies, comparing different accounts of the same event, judging criticism or opinions against one's own views, etc.