Explaining the processes of finding and retrieving information clearly and concisely has always been a challenge for academic librarians. In our new age of digital information an introductory course-related library instruction session must now orient users to the facilities of both the physical and virtual library--its books and its computers. Instructors often lead tours of the library, introduce principles for conducting efficient and effective research (both strategy and technique), highlight specific information resources relevant to the subject of the course, allow time for class participants to practice hands on research exercises on classroom computers, answer any questions that arise, and cover all of this material in less than one hour's time.
Using the World Wide Web to produce and deliver bibliographic instruction (B.I.) alleviates some of our traditional constraints of time and space. More information than can be conveyed in a single class session can be included on library pages for a course. The web allows access to this information at any time from any networked workstation. Researchers can reenter the library whenever they need to work.
Here in the Cornell University Library I have designed a B.I. web template that can be used for a variety of different classes. With simple HTML, common elements are retained and duplicated for all classes, while specific information and other customized details are easily added to a course's unique pages. A course page built from this template serves as an outline for the B.I. session and as a guide to research strategy and methods. Information is presented sequentially, with each step defined and supported by links to an embedded hypertext tutorial that explains each step in detail and defines all terms and jargon. The course page is also an annotated bibliography of selected library resources and a webliography of selected Web links chosen in consultation with the faculty member teaching the course. Students are informed of a wide spectrum of resources--from rare books and original manuscripts to newspapers, microform sets, electronic full-text journals, the latest web sites, and our book collections.
B.I. Template url: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/classtemplate.html
Course url: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/sts119.html
Keywords: Library Instruction, Bibliographic Instruction, B.I. template, webliography, Webliographic Instruction
Explaining the processes of finding and retrieving information clearly and concisely has always been a challenge for academic librarians. There has always been too much to tell researchers and too little time to tell it. This was certainly true in our traditional world of paper resources and card catalogs, and it is a problem that has only grown in magnitude as we have progressed into our new age of digital information. These days a successful introductory course-related library instruction session should orient users to the "facilities" of both the physical and virtual library--its books and its computers. The main purpose of Library or Bibliographic Instruction (B.I.) is to acquaint and inform researchers of the resources and options available to them. Using the Web as the medium for delivering our orientation helps to ease some of the constraints of traditional classroom instruction by offering this information in a format that is readily available and easily accessible to users for later and further consultation from practically anywhere at any time. Teaching from the Web also allows us to place the Web technology in context, and to review the full spectrum of resources and formats that make up our expanding information universe.
Bibliographic Instruction is taught at the request of faculty, often as either a general orientation to academic research libraries or as an introduction to course or subject-related resources needed to complete a specific research paper or assignment. As a "guest lecturer" for a course a librarian generally has a single class session in which to work. It is a session that must immediately engage and stimulate its audience, demonstrate its practicality and relevance to their needs, and inform them of the options available to them without overwhelming them with potentially numbing detail or the chaos of too many choices. It must also convey the message that the library is a welcome environment for further inquiry and that the librarians are there to assist them. Much needs to be covered in very little time.
In a typical B.I. session for beginning researchers, librarians will often begin by leading the group on a brief tour of the library building--orienting new users to the physical space and layout of the collections while informing them of the local policies and procedures governing the use of library materials. Students are then taken to a classroom or computer lab for a brief lecture on conducting efficient and effective research (covering both strategy and technique). Specific resources relevant to the subject of their course are highlighted and key research tools and systems like the library's online catalog and other networked databases are demonstrated. Often the parameters of a particular assignment are discussed, and then most importantly, class participants are given time to practice hands-on research exercises on classroom computers. Librarians need to present all of this information, answer any questions that arise during the session, and cover all of this material in less than one hour's time.
Using the Web as the primary means of presenting B.I. both compresses and expands the library session. More information than can be conveyed in a single class session can be presented on the library web pages for a course. Descriptions and definitions, graphics, and hypertext links to related information can support the class lecture and demonstrations and add detail and emphasis to their content. Links can be made to other library web sites, the course's own web pages, or to other external sites. And the Web allows for access to this information at any time from any networked workstation to patrons with proper identification and passwords. The library pages can be returned to whenever that information is needed. The virtual library never closes, researchers with computers can "reenter" the library or the library classroom whenever they need to work.
Here at the Cornell University Library I have designed a B.I. template that I use to create instructional web pages for a variety of different classes. This template can be found at the following url:
As you look at this site you will see that I have placed the web address for a course page very prominently at the top of the page. This is to facilitate the easy return to these pages by students. While the class pages are linked from our Reference Division web site, I have noticed that students are often confused by the "path" I take to specific pages if that navigation involves clicking on more than two or three links. To avoid this problem I have the first page of a class web site printed out and I give this page to the students as a class handout. This way they all have the web address and precise directions for getting back to the library material.
The web pages in this template are the foundation for all of my class pages. Format, style, and general information common to all courses are set here, with space left for course specific information. Using very simple HTML markup and a minimal amount of graphics to insure a faster loading of pages, the template is arranged in a vertical hierarchy. The Table of Contents at the top of the page serves as both an outline for the B.I. session and as a guide to suggested research methods and strategy. Information is presented sequentially, moving from general to specific facts, with each step defined and supported by links to an embedded hypertext library tutorial that explains each step in more detail and defines all terms and jargon. Each link in the Table of Contents is a directive, leading to sections or chapters on that topic. Each section title is also a link to pages supplying more and more detail the further one travels into them. Essentially I have taken the elements of a proven research strategy that we have longed used in our paper bibliographies for library classes and combined them with newly developed web components. By plugging in the web tutorial (designed by my colleague, Michael Engle) users can be guided from their course page to the specific research information they need. For instance, if a student was unfamiliar with our classification system (how materials are arranged on our shelves) and needed to learn more about searching for books, he or she could go to the section of the site called Finding Books to obtain brief descriptions of our library's online and card catalogs as well as links to more detailed information about searching in the online environment and to a series of web pages that explain how Library of Congress call numbers work. Both local and external links are used to explain these concepts. The section also contains a link to our library's online catalog (Connect to the Cornell Library Catalog). While the online catalog can be launched from a variety of library interfaces (telnet, TN3270, or the Web) and from a variety of locations, having a link directly from the class page reenforces the process of empowerment. Students move directly from the "theory" of finding materials, to the "practice" or action of finding materials.
A course page built from this template in the Spring 1998 semester at Cornell can be found at the following url:
Here you can see an application of the class template. Users of this site can obtain the general orientation and point of use help as discussed above, and find information specific to the course. Students in this Science and Technology Studies class were asked to write a 8-10 page paper on some aspect of scientific controversy by their professor. Here they were directed to resources pertaining to the history of science and philosophy.
The course page contains two selective annotated bibliographies. The first lists reference sources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries (traditional background resources suggested as starting places to assist in determining how much and what kind of information is available on a given topic). The second lists a selection of indexes or indexing services for finding articles in relevant periodical literature. Both sets of information come from a database of annotations for reference materials that has been compiled over the last 20 years by staff in the Olin Kroch Uris Libraries Reference Services Division. Originally a paper file, the "green cards" as they are known in the division, are now available in HTML format. Entries for each source list a bibliographic citation (in MLA citation format), a library location and call number, and a brief annotation describing the material, as shown in the example below:
(Uris Ref B 41 D55+; also Olin Ref)
An encyclopedia of intellectual history providing an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural perspective on major ideas. Some of the selected topics included are the history of ideas in the biological and physical sciences, in anthropology, psychology, religion & philosophy, in literature & the arts, in history, politics & economics, and in mathematics & linguistics. Articles are of substantial length and include bibliographies. Volume 5 provides a detailed index to the set, and should be consulted first.
These entries are easily copied into our class web pages and other subject bibliographies that we produce. Staff continue to annotate new reference sources and add them to this database. Once only a file of print resources, the Green Cards File now has an expanding list of descriptions for online and electronic resources.
Annotations for networked resources included in these bibliographies often contain direct links to those resources from our class web pages. These hypertext links are supplied as instructional examples. The intention is to give new researchers some convenient starting places to begin their work, while also informing them how to locate and use them. Below are sample entries for two periodical indexes from an English Literature class page:
(Cornell Library Gateway; also in print at Olin Ref)
An international index and database providing references to scholarly articles from over 4000 journals dealing with languages, literature, folklore and linguistics. It is useful for finding literary criticism of a particular author or work, as well as articles on literary theory, women's studies, popular culture, and performing arts. The online version of MLA covers 1963 to present. The print version, available at Olin Ref (Z 7006 .M68), covers 1921 to the present.
MLA International Bibliography (Linked to the Catalog version) InfoShare Telnet interface
MLA International Bibliography (Web version) OCLC Web interface
Indexes and abstracts over 1600 general interest magazines and scholarly journals including all the magazines in Reader's Guide and most of the scholarly journals from Social Sciences Index, Humanities Index, General Science Index. It also includes citations and abstracts to selected television and radio programs. Cornell University Libraries subscribe to most of the periodicals indexed. Holdings can be found easily since the titles are linked to the online catalog. The full text of some transcripts from the television and radio programs can be found by searching the Transcripts section of the General News Files of LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe.
Periodical Abstracts/ABI Inform (Full-Text Web version) ProQuest Direct Web interface
Here students are supplied with descriptions of the indexes and directed to both online and paper versions of the resources (in case historical data is needed) and to multiple interfaces for the online products where applicable. (The number of interfaces varies from database to database and from vendor to vendor, but in general the trend is for databases to migrate from telnet to Web versions, with an increased emphasis on delivering the full-text of articles indexed.)
Students are also given direct links to the networked versions of the indexes and directed to their Cornell online locations in our new Cornell Library Gateway. (http://www.library.cornell.edu) This frames-based site serves as the homepage for the Cornell University Library, offering a guide to information about the library system, its services and collections, and a search engine for finding the library's networked resources. This "database of databases" is discussed at length and linked to from the course page. Students can search for databases by title or keyword or browse a series of menus by topic for networked resources like web-based indexes, full-text journal articles, bibliographic utilities like RLIN and OCLC, numeric files, and spatial data.
The Gateway is the web entry to the Cornell Library. And it is rapidly becoming the main entrance to the library. As it uses the Web to integrate information and resources, it is an incremental but pivotal step towards implementing a truly digital library. While paper books are not likely to disappear any time soon, increasingly research quality information is available digitally, online and available over the Web, and with this move the library itself is moving to the Web. All the more reason to conduct our library instruction via the Web.
In addition to the section on Finding Networked Resources, the course page also supplies information about finding Internet resources. Here students are given links to a host of Search Engines and Internet Subject Guides. Included are links that lead to ratings and comparison studies of the different services. Students are encouraged to experiment and find a Search Engine that best matches their needs and is comfortable to use.
The course page also contains a webliography of selected Internet links chosen in consultation with the faculty member teaching the course. Here for example we have links to both the Cornell Department of Science and Technology Studies' list of web resources and the Horus Publications' Introduction to the History of Science web site chosen by the professor of this class. A link for the Cornell University Library Rare and Manuscripts Collections' web site is also included as the library's History of Science Collections house one of the world's finest selections of rare scientific books. (Book holdings of over 35,000 volumes are supplemented by the papers of many Cornell scientists, including several Nobel laureates.) And it is here that we see the true integration of the Web into library instruction. These web sites have numerous links to other web sites, but they also contain bibliographies of other suggested readings. Some of the resources listed in these bibliographies match the bibliographies on the course page. There is a built in redundancy that acts as a filter for the uninitiated and accents the most highly recommended print and electronic resources. This is not to suggest that the mere repetition of a link or print title in a number of lists guarantees its utility, though it does help to note who is citing and linking to whom.
With this integration we cross over from Bibliographic Instruction to "Webliographic" Instruction. Students working from these course pages are using the Web and its seemingly infinite connectivity to explore all of the libraries resources. They can launch sessions for the online catalog to find books, search for articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers, and surf the Net. And as a primitive first step towards a virtual interaction, students can now ask their questions from library web pages. At the top and bottom of the course page links for obtaining further assistance are included (Question? Ask a Librarian). These inquiries are directed to our division's e-mail reference service. There is also a list of online self-help pages that explain how to use a number of our library and information resources, ranging from pages that supply database specific search commands to technical instructions on how to download and configure software for viewing online library resources. Links for the library tutorial and a glossary of research terms are also available for students. At the very top and bottom of the course page there are icon links for the Reference Division's homepage to supply a departmental context for the class. Likewise there are icon links for the online catalog, the Library Gateway, and Cornell's electronic bulletin board, CUINFO, at the bottom of the page to direct students to system-wide and campus-wide information.
As this page served as my outline for a 50 minute B.I. session for this class, I began by directing students to this site and discussed how the page was organized and how it worked. During the class time students were shown books listed in the bibliography of background resources, had several searches demonstrated to them in the online catalog, and were then allowed between 5-10 minutes to work at their individual workstations. After the hands-on session I showed the students sources and methods used for finding periodical literature, networked resources, and other World Wide Web sites. Then another 5-10 minutes were used as a second hands-on session. At the end of the class the students were reminded of all the ways to find online help and in-person assistance if they should run into difficulties with their research. The rest was up to them.
Since the course page encapsulates and expands upon all of the information presented in the class session, it is hoped that the students will return to the course pages to review strategies and resources at a pace that is more conducive to absorbing all of this material. The course pages are designed to function independently, but they can certainly be linked to a professor's class web site and work in conjunction with it. And the course pages can be modified to accomodate all levels of research projects. They can easily be updated throughout a semester to account for new findings or breaking news or additional assignments.
This is perhaps the greatest advantage gained by using the Web for library instruction--flexibility. Information can now be created and stored and changed quickly and easily. It can be accessed from outside the library and at any time of day. Web pages allow a great deal of information to be compressed into "self-extracting" layers which let users work at a range of levels or complexity. A single site can lead the curious to hundreds of sources of information. Using the Web to teach students about online networked sources is obvious and necessary, but using the Web to inform them of traditional "offline" non-networked resources--from rare books and original manuscripts, newspapers and microform sets, to stand alone CD-ROM workstations and our book collections helps to bridge the digital gap and to raise the level of awareness and interest in these materials. The World Wide Web is already extemely familiar to many of our new academic researchers. It seems most fitting and appropriate to direct this familiarity and informational enthusiasm into the library classroom.
Lance J. Heidig
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Cornell University Library
106 Olin Library
Ithaca, NY 14853-5301 USA
ljh5@cornell.edu