Library

Creating Effective Research Assignments

Highline’s librarians are your faculty partners in the shared goal of helping students reach success in finding, evaluating and using information.  This website is designed to help Highline instructors develop research-intensive assignments.  Look here for tools, resources, suggested steps and reminders that will facilitate your teaching and result in a more satisfying research experience for your students.

 Know the Library's Resources

Librarians!  We are always here for your students and for you.  We can suggest materials that match up with your assignments, assist with searches, or suggest a specialized database perfect your assignment.  Visit the desk, call us at x3232, or email refhelp@highline.edu.

Instruction  You can schedule your class for an instruction session with just a few days’ notice.  Librarians can tailor a lesson to focus on a specific research assignment, highlighting the skills and resources most needed for that project.

Our website  From http://flightline.highline.edu/library, you can get to our catalog, our online periodicals and databases, and college-appropriate subject guides in all disciplines. 

 Suggested Steps 

1. Determine if your students have the basic information literacy skills to complete the assignment successfully.  Can they find books in the catalog? Do they know how to search for journal articles? Can they distinguish between web searching and database searching? If not, scheduling an instruction session at the library might be a good way to start the research assignment.
2. Let us know about the research assignments you are sending your students.  You can email copies of the assignment to refhelp@highline.edu .
3. Confirm that the library has the resources you are suggesting for the assignment.
4. Define your terms.  When you say “no Internet sources”, you may be eliminating good options, like online books, journal articles, and specialized databases.  When you say “academic sources” do you mean peer-reviewed journals only? What about subject-specific encyclopedias or other reference sources? Make sure students understand what sources you want to point them to. We can also suggest resources for your assignments.

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Highline Community College Library
P.O. Box 98000 Des Moines, WA 98198-9800  
(206)  878-3710 x3234

Highline Library Reference Department
refhelp@highline.edu
last updated 15 Apr 2008
 

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