IRS Scenario: Graduate Training
Amy is an assistant professor in the Department of History. She is teaching a new course
on research methods for all incoming graduate students. The course should provide
students with a common introduction to the latest resources and techniques for
conducting historical research in preparation for a research essay that each must complete
by the end of the academic year. Each of the students specializes in a different place,
time period, and approach to historical research. Amy has learned that the Library now
offers both a computer classroom and a “Scholar’s Lab” with high-end workstations,
scanning equipment, software tools for data management, text manipulation, and
collaboration, support for the use of these technologies, and consultation on digital
projects.
Which of the following instructional services can best help Amy make this a
successful course? Please rate each
How to use digital photography, scanners, and text and image manipulation software in
the library and archives
How to manage and archive data
How to construct effective searches in electronic catalogs and databases
How to use bibliographic software such as Zotero, RefWorks, or EndNote
How to take and organize notes using a database program such as Scribe or Microsoft
Access
How to use non-digital reference materials such as the National Union Catalog,
Biographical Archives, and the Dictionary of American History
How to use digital collections of primary sources such as the Archive of Americana,
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, American Periodical Series Online, and Empire
Online
How to use online journal repositories and article databases such as JSTOR, History
Cooperative, and America: History and Life
How to use online bibliographic databases such as WorldCat, the CRL catalog, and
ProQuest’s Digital Dissertations
How to identify the location of archival materials using Archive Grid, Archives USA,
NIDS, catalogs, and other online and print archival guides
What other resources would be useful? Please list your suggestions:
What would be the most effective format for this instruction? Choose as many as
you like, but rank your responses in order of importance.
Modular web-based tutorials for each of the above topics that can pulled into the
instructor’s courseware (cafeteria style) [University of Minnesota example]
A information literacy web-based tutorial on historical research, with customizable
sections on types of resources and strategies for discovering and using them [like Global
News Village, with customizable module 2]
Visits by a librarian to the graduate seminar classroom (specify either a series of 10minute presentations on specific topics or a one-shot 60-minute session covering multiple
sources and search strategies)
Visits by the class to a smart classroom in the Main Library
Regular, announced hours when library staff is available on a drop-in basis for one-onone consultation in the Main Library
rev. 4-5-07