Skyline College Library

DESIGNING EFFECTIVE LIBRARY ASSIGNMENTS

A well-designed library assignment is an excellent teaching tool for building your students' critical thinking and research skills. They should accomplish two things: increased understanding of the process of finding and evaluating information and, increased knowledge of a subject. The librarians at Skyline Library are happy to help you develop library assignments that will support your teaching goals. For some quick tips on designing effective library assignments, you may be interested in the following Web sites:

"Designing Effective Library Assignments: (Delta College)
http://alpha.delta.edu/root/library/Efflib.html

"Creating Effective Library Assignments" (University of Maryland Libraries)
http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/EUS/assignment.html

"Assignments to Promote Information Competency" (Palomar College)
http://www.palomar.edu/library/infocomp/assignchart.htm

If you're weary of assigning term papers and would like to try an alternative library assignment, you may get some ideas from these Web sites:

"Term Paper Alternatives" (University of California, Berkeley)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/PaperAlternatives.html

"Ideas for Library/Information Assignments" (Queen Elizabeth II Library)
http://www.mun.ca/library/research_help/qeii/assignment_ideas.html

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last revised: 11-8-02 by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA