In post-session feedback, first-year students frequently express anxiety over how to physically navigate the library to find a book on the shelf. This is a simple, pre-session activity to help students try this out before class, so that they can discuss with their librarian any challenges they faced in attempting to complete the task. With the help of the course instructor, students are asked to find a book on their research topic (or course topic) and bring it to class.

This is an activity that helps students develop an interdisciplinary search strategy in stages. Students define their topic, brainstorm questions related to their topic area, and connect these questions to the disciplines and experts where they might find more research and information. Students learn how to identify search tools & information sources based on their questions using the library’s website.

This assignment/activity works to pair students in fully online or hybrid courses in order to discuss, via phone or messaging app, any topic of choice. In this example, students in a 100-level composition course discuss their research topic of interest with their partner and offer each other suggestions for refinement. This assignment could be adapted in a variety of ways to support other research assignments or projects.

A general sample of how to set up the information literacy workshop in an escape room model.

Students often struggle developing good research questions. This rubric is used to assess research questions. Students are given a brief lesson on developing a research question that includes a video produced by the University of Cincinnati.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aYA1ooRce8&index=5&list=PLSWTn4sCw1ZN1B...

Entering students all take MGT101 – Business Management Practice. Creation of a business plan for a unique product or service is the major project for this course. This Library assignment uses a workshop format to give student groups in Management 101 the task of exploring, evaluating, and reviewing a particular resource important in the business plan research process. Groups are provided a work sheet that presents a set of tasks and 'deliverables' which form the basis of a presentation during which they teach their peers how to use the resource, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of that resource. Active engagement exploring new databases and resources helps students acquire skills necessary for successful completion of course assignments. Including students in the teaching process promotes this engagement, and often results in a more successful transfer of knowledge and skills to all students. Librarians and professors may chime in at the close of each presentation to underscore points made by student evaluators, or further those presentations by providing additional strategies or pathways to uncover needed information of benefit to all students as they work to develop their business plans.

Students interview their professor(s) and ask them to describe how they do research, how research gets disseminated in their discipline, etc. Each student can ask one question below. This assignment can be useful as a “first day of class” activity for a First Year Seminar. Novice researchers are introduced to scholarly discourse and discipline-specific approaches to producing knowledge by experts.