On October 6, 2011, I presented at the Nebraska Library Association annual conference. I shared free online resources to use at the library. Approximately 50 people attended the 50-minute presentation.
Find the list of resources I discussed here.
Find the PowerPoint presentation here.
I finished my Master’s degree in December of last year. I’d heard about services such as these, but I didn’t take the time to explore them and did all my citations the old-fashioned way. Now that I’ve looked at these sites, I feel like I could have saved myself a lot of work, especially since I primarily used articles from online databases for my research and writing.
Having explored all three of these websites, I think Zotero seems the most functional for students. In my mind, the biggest benefit is its ability to cite everything correctly and in different styles. In almost every class for my MLS, we were told to use APA style. One class required MLA style. A tool such as Zotero would have made this much less painful; I wouldn’t have had to adjust to using a completely different style.
As I think of my library’s patrons, I can see recommending these sites to college students. To be honest, though, even having them stick around long enough to show them one online database is a feat. I hope my academic library counterparts have a higher success rate.
I have been helping public library patrons with reference and research for over nine years. The following was an assignment for class in which I had to use both print and electronic resources to answer reference questions. The question, rationale for research method and choice of source, and the answer is listed for each entry.
Click below to view the assignment.
Sometimes middle school or high school classes, homeschool groups, or groups such as Boy Scout troops would ask for a tour of the library, specifically the Teen Zone. In preparation for a school visit from a 7th grade class, I prepared a tour and short tutorial of relevant library resources. After the tutorial, students split into groups to do practice exercises and a scavenger hunt of the Teen Zone.
Click below to view the practice exercises and scavenger hunt.
The Kids InfoBits brochure highlights the functions and features of the Kids InfoBits database I recommend to elementary and middle school students for a variety of research purposes.
Click the link below to view.
The Biographies Bookmark was created in response to the many inquiries we had from both adults and students for biographies. Because the library did not have a separate section for biographies, I created this bookmark to guide patrons in the right direction.
Click the link below to view.
The Research Guide is compilation of helpful reference resources both in the library and on the web. This is something I give students to refer to while researching outside the library.
Click on the link below to view.
Bethany Grabow- Enthusiastic Librarian 