English 103 Library Support

The effectiveness of an Annotated Bibliography assignment hinges on the requirements that you incorporate in its design. 

• It can introduce students to new ways of interrogating ideas on a scoped topic.
• It can help students categorize different types and formats of information sources that they have never considered using.
• It can compel students to evaluate a variety of sources and comtemplate strategic uses of those sources beyond topic relevance.
• It can familiarze students with tools and sources that go beyond the tip of the iceberg; if we want them to gain familiarity with information tools beyond the Google products they've used throughout high school. 
• It can introduce or reinforce the intellectual practice of incorporating and citing sources.

Direct students toward a variety of library resources

• Require a variety of sources: Use the Annotated Bib as a way for students to explore a variety of sources in different formats (e.g. books, articles, print, web, news, magazines, etc.) helps them develop their ability to identify, locate, access, evaluate, and integrate sources into their final product.
• Be very clear about your requirements. Make it easy for students to know what to find and what you should see in their annotations beyond a summary of the work. 
• Student annotations can be much more than source content summaries; you can require a student to explain how they know a source is relevant, reliable, scholarly, in the annotation. If you require students to find an article using library databases, you can require them to identify the database. For an example, see the attached sample below.
• Article from a library database: If you require students to go beyond using Google and to use library databases, you can verify this by asking them to list the database article URL in an APA or MLA citation.

The dreaded book requirement: An issue that librarians have noticed in E103 annotated bib assignments is the absence of a book requirement. 

What better place and time is there for a new-ish student to learn how to find a book in an academic library than 103?

To be fair, finding and using a book source can be a chore especially if it's in print format.

Students must navigate the Library of Congress call number.

They must physically traverse the building and make use of signage.

It is the opposite of immediate gratifcation that they are used to; connections between their research topic: "Swiftie Tick Tock fan groups and the importance of shared emotional bonding" with an older, established book and its chapter on "The Relationship between Fandom and Psychological Well-being" are not easy to make. 

Also, IT'S a BOOK! A 500 page tome is a bit intimidating (though this fear is allayed when we explain that they need not read/use but a fraction of it.)

These challenges make the Annotated Bib ithe perfect place for a book requirement.

• It is the ultimate low-stakes exploratory research task
• Students are not committed to sources they select as they may be with sources in the evidence-based research essay that comes later.