“Is a Puzzlement!” as the King of Siam would say — Is it better to preselect materials in advance for a class’ research activity, so that kids have the best sources at hand instead of wandering the stacks, or is it better to make students search for useful resources on their own? I wrestle with this question every day, because I can see the pros and cons of both possibilities.
Whatever I choose to do will impact three major aspects of my program: Collection Use, Library/Information Skills Development, and Facilities Management.
Here are some of my concerns, just for the PRINT resources:
If I DO prepare a mini-collection (e.g. ‘pull a cart’) in advance:
PROS:
Collection use:
—Ensures that the best/most useful sources are instantly available
—Makes students aware of additional less directly-related but still valuable resources for their topics.
—Alerts me to gaps in the collection, and/or the need to acquire additional resources for this project.
Library/Information Skills:
—Can build on previously taught access skills, and now teach/develop information evaluation and processing skills.
—Allows more time for students to be actively involved with the appropriate resources; focused on their topic, using information.
—Provides more time for any necessary mini-lessons, either individually or for the whole class.
Facilities management:
—The shelves stay neater (important if it’s a one-person library, like mine).
—The mini-collection is readily available for students who come to the library on their own to continue their research.
—Materials use can be easily supervised and evaluated.
—If necessary, the cart can also be sent to the classroom for use.
CONS:
Collection use:
—Other classes may be working on related projects during the duration of this project; how do you decide which resources to designate or reserve for which class?
—Students don’t get to explore all sections of the library, and discover the ‘serendipity’ of finding something useful when/where you least expect it.
—Impractical to do if the class is covering a wide range of topics.
Library/Information Skills:
—Students still need to learn and develop effective search skills. If a collection is pre-selected for them, they often won’t look any further for additional possibilities. Are we therefore enabling rather than empowering our students, by doing the basic and preliminary work for them? Too often I see students come into the library weeks later (usually when the bibliography is due), and just head straight for ANY cart of books, assuming that the mini-collection has been preserved (in perpetuity?) for them. When that cart doesn’t have “their” collection, they look bewildered, as in “you mean I’ve got to find those books for myself now? I don’t remember the title — it was the big blue book with the horse on the cover.”
—Students don’t learn how to evaluate resources for themselves.
—Teachers often don’t allow time for additional information skills to be taught by the librarian.
Facilities management:
—You may not have enough carts or special shelves for all the concurrent projects!
On the other hand, if I insist that students locate all materials on their own:
PROS:
Collection use:
—Students often discover areas of the library, topics of information, and different kinds of resources that they might not explore without this impetus.
Library/Information Skills:
—Students must continue to develop and reinforce successful ‘location’ skills, including use of the OPAC or card catalog, indexes, etc. in order to find the materials they need.
—Students learn to identify useful descriptors and key words for their topic, in order to be successful searchers.
—Students are more likely to remember where resources on specific subjects are located, once they’ve used them.
Facilities management:
—Materials are available for everyone to use, whether they’re in this particular class or not.
—Less to shelve (if you have no help), once students are trained to put materials back correctly when finished with their use.
CONS:
Collection use:
—Students may waste time searching ineffectively, or using inappropriate resources.
—Students become easily frustrated (especially if they don’t have good search skills), and assume the library has nothing on their subject.
—Students tend to stop at their first, more obvious finds, and could therefore miss many useful additional resources.
—The librarian may not be able to identify collection gaps in time to provide alternate resources.
Library/Information Skills:
—Focus is often on access skills, with not enough attention on processing skills needed.
—Teachers tend to believe that students already have necessary skills, and don’t want time wasted on ‘review’.
Facilities management:
—Inevitably, the shelves are a mess by the time the class leaves!
—If another group is covering the same topic, books may now be hard to find.
Electronic resources present a whole new set of issues:
- Do we allow students to search on their own, or do we direct them to specific sites?
- Do we allow them to use anything they find (no matter what the source), or
- do we insist that they use our subscription databases?
What do you do? and how do you justify your choice?
This is a topic that’s rarely discussed in library classes and forums, and yet it goes to the very foundations of our programs:
When are we being efficient as opposed to expedient, and why?
What other factors influence our decisions?
What do I do in MY library? — it depends on the particular assignment, the class, the scheduled time available, and sometimes even my current level of frazzlement —
but still… IS A PUZZLEMENT!!!
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Originally published in Library Talk Nov. 1999
CART-FULL CONUNDRUMS by Alice H. Yucht
updated on 2/23/05