Resources:
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Tackling Information Tasks
and
Constructing a Resource Guide
Before you begin working on an assignment, you should devise a strategy for tackling the task that was assigned and assessing the product before it is submitted for grading. Before you put a pencil to paper or fingers to a keyboard, you need to locate information so you have something about which to write.
A Resource Guide is a tool to help individuals identify resources in a certain area. A Resource Guide will explain the types of resources that would be useful for that subject or topic, where to find them, and how to use them. It would also give examples of specific resources, such as books or journal articles.
A Resource Guide would include a variety of different kinds of resources: books, journals, databases, Websites, people. A Resource Guide can be printed on paper or developed as a Webpage with direct links to certain electronic sources.
During this exercise, you are to create a Resource Guide to your major or primary minor area of academic study. The Resource Guide will help you identify resources in a broad area of study and list specific tools and sources in a given library (such as Buley Library) that may help locate books, journals, newspaper articles, and other resources for research in this area.
Your Research Guide will contain at least the following:
- TITLE
Example:
NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES:
A Buley Library Collection Resource Guide
- CREDITS
(Who prepared the guide, including acknowledgement/thank you of others who helped)
- ABSTRACT
Example:
This guide is designed to help students identify resources in the area of Native American studies. Sources listed below represent a sampling of Buley Library's collection. The cross-disciplinary nature of Native American studies means that relevant titles are often dispersed throughout the collection. You can locate books, films, music recordings and magazine, journal and newspaper articles by using some of the tools listed. Use
CONSULS, Buley's online catalog, to locate books, films, sound recordings and serial publications. Use the CSU System databases, the library's print, Internet or CD-ROM indexes to locate journal articles, newspaper articles, book chapters, dissertations and published papers.
- RESOURCES
- Online Catalogs and Databases (give names of catalogs/databases and a brief description of the contents of each resource and how to obtain help in locating materials or instruction in using the catalogs and databases)
- Subject headings (give Library of Congress Subject Headings and there coverage as well as an overview of subject headings, where to find them, how to use them)
- Government Publications (where they are located and what information they contain)
- Directories, Encyclopedias and Handbooks (give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers; where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource)
- Bibliographies (give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers; where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource)
- World Wide Web (WWW) (how to access and sample resources, including an annotation about the specific site)
- Non-book/non-print resources (give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers; where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource)
- Other types of resources (give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers; where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource)
Each week you will complete a section of the Resource Guide. By the end of the term, you should have a very useful, and impressive, product.
Before you begin, you will need to decide on the subject area your Resource Guide will cover, devise a title for your Resource Guide, and write an abstract explains what the Guide will do and where the specific sources will be found (e.g. the name of the library).
Okay, if you are ready, let's begin Constructing a Resouce Guide!
On this instructional site, every effort has been made to acknowledge the work of others. Any omission is unintentional. If anyone finds an oversight, please contact me at brown@southernct.edu immediately so that any error can be corrected.
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