There are a couple of key concepts for ENGL 120 students to take away from their library session, and while there are many ways to present these ideas, the content and activities of the session should reflect these concepts.
To the extent possible, the session should cover the concepts below in a way that is relevant to the assignment at hand (if one has been provided in advance). However, a second session may be necessary if the instructor wants the students to have significant 'lab time' for students to work on their research.
The concepts we want students to take away are:
In casual research, you are just looking for information that answers a question, in academic research, there are other considerations (and there often isn't an answer).
Even if you’re great at googling, you will get frustrated doing academic research. Use Ask-A-Librarian - online or in person – for help.
ENGL 120 Library Tutorial: Instructors can have their students go through the tutorial ahead of the session. The tutorial introduces the concepts of format, topic refinement, choosing search terms, and introduces both the catalog and Academic Search premier. The URL for the tutorial is https://libguides.unm.edu/engl1120.
You can generate a report showing all the responses to the tutorial from a specific instructor's students, and share that report with the instructor. Here's a video showing how:
One effective way to structure the class is to use the Cephalonian method of planting questions in the audience.
Format/Genregreen eggs and ham into the quick search box, resulting in 1100 hits. The first result is an emusic recording titled Green Eggs and Hamadeus. The correct book doesn't appear on the first two pages. Many students stop here, either thinking we don't have it, or misinterpreting the results to think they have found it.