Your responses must be in .doc or .rtf formats. Your full name and email address should appear on page one.
Since this is a reference course, I am interested in what you did and why. Strategy and source evaluation can be as important as the "right" answer.
Clearly report your strategy or approach. It is also important to comment on the utility and quality of notable resources that you used--those that were especially useful and those that were not. Close with lessons learned, including what you would do differently next time (if anything).
Questions may be answered by sources in paper or digital form. You may use either form, but clearly indicate which version you used and where you found it [Dialog, web or whatever]. Normally, comparison between sources is expected. Be careful not to over-emphasize Google. Employers will expect you to be familiar with some standard print sources.
I may ask you to begin by looking at a particular sources to answer a particular question. However, use other sources as well. I may have missed a newer, better source.
I try to change questions from semester to semester. Still, some questions on particular resources or issues are difficult to change. Do select exercises that will benefit you professionally.
Be helpful to your colleagues, but do not do their work for them. Learning requires that each student do her own work.
This semester, we will complete the exercise sets listed on the course syllabus in the ordeer listed.
Please complete 3 exercises for each topic. Each topic has one exercise with a * beside it. This exercise is required of all students. This is to insure that we have at least one exercise in common.
If asked in class to present a brief oral comment, please do the following: (1) briefly describe your strategy, (2) briefly mention snags or problems encountered, briefly mention lessons learned and (3) briefly indicate which source was most useful and why. This should be a quick summary.
Government information reference service often begins with a few questions to help link the user's need and likely resources. Here are a few examples:
In selecting topics, it may be helpful to know which topics receive the most attention at the reference desk. Here is a list of popular topics:
Below are the exercise sets created by the teacher. Please see the teach if you need to complete an exercise set not on the syllabus.
