IA Reads

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Print vs. other sources

I've pondered this on my own...but I had never really participated in a debate in the print vs. non-print requirements for students. There are some projects that we do which require students to use a print source. My reasoning for this is that some topics are better served by detailed information written by a credible person. I know that if I wrote a book, I would not post it on the internet for free. I would choose the have it published and collect some income for my work. Would I allow a student to use a Kindle or ebook format? Absoutely. But I am a firm believer that students need to understand what kind of information they find in a book vs. a magazine vs a journal article. I also think that credible websites are good sources of information. But for a "good" research paper, one must mix it up. Use a variety of sources. This is what makes students learn to become good academic researchers.

There are some assignments where we limit students to using only our Gale Databases. It sort of limits the overwhelming amount of information. Students don't have to sift as long for the good stuff, but they can focus on the information/content. This is preparing them for college because I think students should head off to college with a basic understanding of what databases are and how to navigate them. They will refine this skill by the time the graduate from college.
http://galesites.com/menu/index.php?loc=lom_inac


Here is a good blog article by another librarian, which started my thinking:
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/debating-the-requirement-of-print-books-as-information-sources-for-research/

An article on format bigotry :) http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/2/24/format-bigotry.html

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