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Welcome to Lesson 8!
Welcome to Lesson 8!
This last lesson is short – just one page. It'll probably take you about 10 to 20 minutes to read through this lesson, but how long it'll take really depends on how fast you read and how much of the material is new to you. If you are taking the tests associated with the lessons in this tutorial, then when you are ready to take a test, you'll need to navigate to the page that has LINKS TO ALL TESTS.
And now, the author would like to tell you about three things she is really eager for you to take away from this lesson:
Librarians who work in academic librarys may do what you think they do. For example, they don't shelve and organize books; rather, they are experts at finding and evaluating information.
Librarians don't need to be knowledgeable about your topic in order to help you find quality information on your topic.
You really should be asking your subject librarian for help with research because all the other cool and successful students are doing that and don't you want to be like them?
Now, let's get started!
Now, let's get started!
Research can be challenging but hopefully everything you've learned in the previous lessons will help a lot. Still, it's common to run into problems and frustrations. Do yourself a favor and save yourself time and effort by simply asking for help when you run into problems. It SO EASY to get help from a librarian – why not take advantage?!? Could it be that you are wondering WHY you'd bother asking a librarian for help?
Turns out, most students have no idea WHAT librarians do or HOW librarians could possibly help them.
Turns out, most students have no idea WHAT librarians do or HOW librarians could possibly help them.
So, they don't ask librarians for help. In fact, below you see the two most common misconceptions students have about librarians.
Common misconception 1: "Librarians just shelve and organize books, fix the printers, etc. - which isn't the help I need."
Common misconception 1: "Librarians just shelve and organize books, fix the printers, etc. - which isn't the help I need."
Actually, librarians don't do those things. Rather, the students that are hired to work in the library do all of those things. Librarians are experts at conducting research and finding information sources.
Common misconception 2: "Librarians don't have any expertise on my topic, so I don't see how they can help me with my research."
Common misconception 2: "Librarians don't have any expertise on my topic, so I don't see how they can help me with my research."
Librarians don't need to have expertise on your topic in order to help you find relevant sources.
In fact, librarians can do ALL of the following, without needing to be experts on your topic:
Determine whether your topic is feasible for finding relevant sources.
Help you determine the best keywords to use to research your topic.
Direct you to the best databases to search.
Suggest tweaks for your search if you get too many or too few results.
Determine which of your search results are most relevant and appropriate.
Choose the results that meet your assignment's source requirements.
Get to the full-text of the sources you want.
Librarians can help with ALL of the difficulties described in the image above. (And more!)
QUESTION 1. Librarians don't need to have expert knowledge and experience with your particular topic in order to help you find sources on that topic.
true
false
Ok, so how do you get help from a librarian?
Ok, so how do you get help from a librarian?
Easy! Use the blue Ask Us! box on the library's home page where you'll find a variety of options for getting help:
Ask a question using chat. This is quick and completely anonymous!
Phone the library.
Email a question to librarians@nau.edu or, better yet, find and email your SUBJECT LIBRARIAN.
Wait! What's a SUBJECT LIBRARIAN?
Wait! What's a SUBJECT LIBRARIAN?
Well, it turns out that at NAU there is a librarian assigned to every academic department on campus, such as art, biology, business, engineering, history, philosophy, etc. These subject librarians are experts at finding information for their assigned subject areas. So, depending on the topic you are researching, you can choose to email or meet with the librarian who is most familiar with how to find information on your topic – or for your major. You just need to consult this list to find the librarian who can best help you!
Lots of students make appointments with their librarian to get help finding sources for assignments. So, if you are not getting help when you need it, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
QUESTION 2. You can get help finding sources for an assignments in all of these ways but one. Which is the one way you can't get help?
A. sending a chat message
B. emailing a librarian
C. singing to a librarian
D. making an appointment with a librarian
E. phoning a librarian
(Answer at bottom of page.)
In fact, here are the most common comments librarians hear after meeting with a student:
"I wish I 'd known to come get help from you when I started college as freshman!"
"I had no idea I could meet with a librarian and get help - why isn't this service promoted more widely?"
"Can I make an appointment with you again, if I run into more problems?"
"I had no idea how much time you could save me!"
Now you know!
QUESTION 3. Go to Cline Library's website and see if you can figure out who is the subject librarian for Biology and who is the subject librarian for Sociology. Their names are:
A. Tracy Glau; Bridget Wipf
B. Pamela Buzzard; Brittany Blanchard
C. Bridget Wipf; John Doherty
D. Mary DeJong; Amy Hughes
(Answer at bottom of page.)
Ok, so what did you get out of Lesson 8?
Ok, so what did you get out of Lesson 8?
You should know what types of research problems your librarian can help you with.
You should know how to get research help on Cline Library's website.
You should know how to find the subject librarian for your major and get in touch with your librarian.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are finished with the entire tutorial!
CONGRATULATIONS! You are finished with the entire tutorial!
What's next?
What's next?
1) If you need to show you've mastered this lesson, you must take the test. To take the tests associated with this tutorial, go to the LINKS TO ALL TESTS page and follow the instructions you see there. You should also DOCUMENT YOUR COMPLETION of tutorial tests.
2) Before you take the tests and/or move on to the next lesson, please fill out the adjacent survey to share your thoughts about Lesson 8! Note that the survey is anonymous so your name and email are not being collected or shared.
Answer to questions on this page:Question 1. trueQuestion 2. CQuestion 3. D
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