Two librarians at NKU developed an Informed Voting workshop to help students navigate information during the 2024 election season. Attendees were provided a worksheet to learn about the candidates/issues on their ballot and dig into one issue/race to investigate during the workshop.

This library class was designed for the courses Scene Design and Technical Theatre. However, it can be adapted and used for courses that make use of digital archives and other types of digital objects to support their arguments.

These slides were developed for a high school class visiting our academic library. Their assignment was to learn how to do legal research to write a history paper on a Congressional bill or Supreme Court case.

Learn how to go beneath the headlines and current debates to examine the text of laws and/or proposed legislation with a focus on Congress, the Supreme Court, Executive Orders, and state legislatures. This introductory workshop will highlight library resources, open government resources, and search strategies to support researchers across many disciplines and interest areas to navigate legal and legislative history resources.

Description: The Database Scavenger Hunt engages pairs of students in locating specific information or performing specific tasks across multiple resources. Each team works through a series of 16 questions/tasks, with verification of correct answers from the librarian/professor after every 1 or 2 questions, then places a mark on the corresponding wall grid of questions once an answer is deemed correct. The process repeats until the team completes all questions.

The wall grid acts as a way to track where teams are in the game and creates a light-weight race to finish first. (Optional: provide a small prize to either the first team to finish or do a drawing of all teams that finished to give out a prize). See image below of completed wall-grid, with each color/shape of sticky note representing a different team.

Verifying answers after each/every 2 questions ensures students are finding the correct information and completing the tasks. Once a majority of teams complete all 16 questions, there is a group discussion of difficult questions and demoing of any specific problem areas. Before the activity begins, the librarian/instructor can demo where to find databases & database descriptions on the library webpage and mention how to log in. 

Questions can be customized to match the class/subject area. The example attached below is for an undergraduate research group. Examples of changes include: switching databases & examples, focusing on different types of information (patents, standards, handbooks, webpages, etc.), changing tasks based on assignment needs, etc.

Note: Because of the verification step, this activity is best with groups of 20 or less and with the assistance of either the professor or another colleague. 

Materials Needed:

• Question sheet for each student
• Answer sheet for each librarian/professor/instructor
• Wall grid, cut into half-size pages
• Sticky notes (or some method of distinguishing team marks on grid)
• Tape to adhere grid to wall
• Prize (optional)

The assignment supports students' ability to explain their research in less than 50 words effectively. Students briefly introduce themselves and their research projects by answering the following questions in the discussion board post:

• Your dissertation committee chair
• The topic of your research. See the topic structure (elements).
• Research Questions. See research question structure
• Research design. See the guide to research design
• Where are you in the dissertation process? See the guide to the Education Dissertation.
• Students are also asked to critique other students' theses.

The first in a series of six courses, students focus on the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Plan involving prescription medications, patient history and more complex patient cases with an emphasis on culture humility. This one-shot is intended to help solidfy the lessons taught in previous classes I have with the students (such as Boolean and library services) and allow them to explore the needs of searching for traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine. This is less about structuring a perfect search and more about reviewing different types of search interfaces and the results within them. While I use Padlet and Kahoot I also print out all questions and prompts to better adhere to universal design standards. Each group is given a prompt based on a plant and information that is taken from the book "Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science" by Enrique Salmon and they are given a print out of the section their prompt is from. This way they read about the plant's history, medicinal properties, cultural importance, and more before beginning their searches.

Students are asked to help 3 of their classmates choose the best Boolean search commands for their searches. Venn Diagrams change color and the search statement is dynamically updated as students select the Boolean commands. Constructive feedback is given for each submission and students have an opportunity to construct their own search statement at the end of the tutorial.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.