STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: THE UNDERGRADUATE IN THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY - A COLLABORATIVE PEDAGOGY FOR UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH - Appendix

Oct 15, 2026

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An appendix to the CEA Forum (Winter/Spring 2008) presents a collaborative pedagogy for teaching undergraduate research skills in the academic library. It contrasts instructors’ expectations with students’ limited experience, describing anxiety and misconceptions about reference services and database searching. Using classroom and librarian perspectives, the text recounts workshops and assignment design efforts, explaining how pairing librarians with faculty supports integrating information literacy and revising teaching approaches to help students conduct basic literary research effectively.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

From the Classroom: The Professor's Perspective

Teaching complex research skills

Students’ limited experience with library research

Into the Library: The Librarian's Perspective

Periodical Locator search difficulties

Misconceptions about library databases and the Internet

The CEA Forum Winter/Spring 2008: 37.1 Next: Teaching Doctor Faustus STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: THE UNDERGRADUATE IN THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY A COLLABORATIVE PEDAGOGY FOR UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Dabney A. Bankert and Melissa S. Van Vuuren Appendix From the Classroom: The Professor's Perspective A number of years ago when I was still a rookie professor, I was reminding a group of advanced English majors that our next class would meet in the library reference room for a tutorial on Medieval reference sources. One serious young man, a senior, raised his hand and asked, 􀳦Where is the reference room?􀳦 While I stood, momentarily speechless, the class erupted in laughter. I retained sufficient presence of mind, however, to observe that he was not the only student who seemed to be in need of direction, even if the others had been perceptive enough not to admit it in public. Iam no longer a rookie, but despite repeated evidence to the contrary, I often assume my students have more research experience than they do. The 􀳦wired generation􀳦 they may be, but few arrive on campus packing sophisticated or, for that matter, even rustic electronic searching skills. Geographically-speaking, they are at home in the virtual world, uncomfortable in the alien wilds of the academic library, and downright terrified in the dark continent of the reference room. As one distressed junior recently confessed when I enquired as to why she had failed to consult a particular print source for appropriate bibliography, 􀳦My professors tell me that stuff is there and I should use it, but it's scary.􀳦 This is not another tired lament for a Golden Age when all students were brilliantly prepared for college, but rather an elaboration of a central pedagogical reality we, the authors, had each separately (me in the classroom, Melissa in the library) faced􀳦it is not easy to teach the complex set of skills subsumed under the heading 􀳦research,􀳦 that organic, contingent, messy, recursive series of processes that can test even the most placid patience. When I develop an assignment that requires research, I know roughly or even quite specifically what I expect my students to do; my failure to come to terms with their limited research skills, however, has meant that what I want and what they are capable of giving me are all too often incommensurate. This problem is exacerbated when, attempting to satisfy my desires, they go off to the library to inflict chaos on the reference staff. This is the story of our collaborative attempt to find an effective way to teach research skills to undergraduates. Its impetus was a May 2006 workshop, Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning, organized by James Madison University Libraries and the Center for Faculty Innovation. The workshop paired reference librarians with faculty from a variety of disciplines; each pair collaborated on the integration of information literacy into an assignment. This was a modest goal; we did not fully anticipate that in achieving it we would also fundamentally revise our pedagogical vision. In creating, piloting, and assessing the assignment featured here, we discovered that few beginning (or even advanced) English majors have learned to conduct basic literary research, they desperately desire the skills to do so, and are often profoundly embarrassed to admit they don't already have them. Into the Library: The Librarian's Perspective The following story, recounted to me by a colleague, exemplifies this problem. After a two-hour struggle, a student approached the reference desk for help. 􀳦I've been searching on the library website for hours and can't find anything on my topic,􀳦 he told the librarian on duty. "Can you help me?􀳦 The librarian asked the student to show her how he had been searching. From the library homepage, he clicked on the link for Periodical Locator, a resource used to find periodical titles and holdings, and proceeded to type his topic􀳦the meaning of life􀳦into the se

FAQs

What problem do the authors identify in teaching undergraduate research skills?

They find that students often have limited experience conducting literary research and feel embarrassed to admit they lack these skills, making the instructors’ expectations and student capabilities misaligned.

What example shows a student’s difficulty using library tools?

A student searches on the library website for hours by typing a topic into Periodical Locator without understanding its purpose, leading to unproductive results and frustration.

How did the collaborative workshop influence the approach described in the appendix?

The May 2006 workshop paired reference librarians with faculty across disciplines, where each pair collaborated to integrate information literacy into an assignment, ultimately revising the group’s pedagogical vision.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by SANS