Purpose

 

Purpose:

 

1.1 The information literate student defines and articulates the need for information.

 

a. Confers with instructors and participates in class discussions, peer workgroups, and electronic discussions to identify a research topic, or other information need.

 

Librarians assist students in determining a topic based on a general assignment description.

 

Examples:

In SSC 101 students are asked to write a paper aimed at a critical cross-cultural comparison of any aspect of human behavior; librarians can suggest various cultures and different aspects of human behavior for research.

 

Students sometimes need help figuring out a class assignment. Reference librarians help them understand assignments to determine what resources they need.

 

When working on group activities students often share information provided by librarians with the other members of their group; this leads to discussion among members of the group which can ultimately lead to better articulation and definition of both the topic under investigation and the actual information needs.