Skip to content

Effective Library Assignments

Read These First!

Effective library assignments help students learn research and critical thinking skills for a lifetime of learning. Please consult these sites for valuable tips on how to make your assignments effective and your students' research experience a positive one:

Examples of Research Assignments and Suggestions for Developing Others

Searching the Web will find many sources of ideas for library research assignments. Here are several recommended sites to get you started:

A good place to begin:

The CSU Information Competence Initiative site has lots of help with infusing information competence into instruction in the CSU. The Resources for Teaching and Learning link includes an Assignment Clearinghouse and more.

And don't forget:

The Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education are becoming nationally recognized and widely used to organize information competence instruction and serve as a basis for assessment. For more information, see the ACRL Standards Toolkit and Using the Standards.

A good how-to for a popular assignment:

Many library assignments involve having students prepare annotated bibliographies. Here is a good guide with examples: How to Write Annotated Bibliographies.

More links:

Help with Preventing or Detecting Plagiarism

This site offers excellent help with a perennial problem:

Remember, your librarian bibliographer will be happy to assistant you in designing or evaluating a research assignment. If you have sites to recommend for this page or successful assignments you'd like to share, please contact Martha Johansen.