What I'm supposed to do: NOVA libraries provide a multitude of online resources in addition to what’s out there on the world-wide-web. Find out how to access the library’s resources, and hear how Charlie and Diane incorporate online materials into their courses.
What I'll try to do: Describe a few of the assignments that I have in both my campus and online courses that make use of library resources.
Where is the library? There is no longer the easy-to-find-and-use campus-library web page. So, you must now use the college library page which is at www.nvcc.edu/library/ (but just try and find that link from the college home page at www.nvcc.edu/).
In all of my history courses, I use these assignments
- Wikipedia Analysis assignment
- Resource that I use: In this case I use the online Encyclopedia Britannica through VIVA.
- Directions for the assignment: You must compare the contents of the wiki article with the same article in Encyclopedia Britannica (See How to Access Britannica) or another reference source such as Encarta --There are many other acceptable encyclopedias and topical reference sources that you could also consult. I would advise you to check with a campus reference librarian--You can do this comparison at any time with the three months of your project.
- Website evaluation
- Resource that I use: If you need some assistance with searching the web to find a website for this assignment, please check Jennifer Reynold's Effective Internet Searching site at www.nvcc.edu/home/nveganj/elilbr110/lbr110index.htm
- In my his 135 course (history of the contemporary world), I have a Current events paper assignment
- Resource that I use: There are a number of library databases, such as Proquest, that you can use to find relevant articles for this assignment. As a starting point for research, check the Loudoun campus library. For this assignment, some students have used Google Alerts to have articles that appear in online daily newspapers for a topic emailed to them. Whenever that topic appears in the news it is mailed to your email. Click on the News Alerts link at news.google.com.
- Directions for the assignment: Students are required to follow the events in one country of the world throughout their enrollment in this course; it is easiest to do this "online" instead of reading the daily newspaper, but you can certainly do that too.
- I also have a contemporary history paper
- Resource that I use: “You should use web-based sources, including newspapers. The online databases available through the Loudoun campus library web page will give you a lot of possible sources that you can check.”
- Directions for the assignment are available.
- Another assignment that I have is a Website creation
- Resource that I use: To develop the list of “Recommended books” and the “Annotated list of web resources” I recommend that students use the online databases
Of course, students are able to do research for any other course assignments on the web using library resources.