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This information has been provided for librarians, instructors,
faculty and other educators interested in learning more about BOLT.
If you have contributions or suggestions about using BOLT, please
email
us.
What is BOLT?
BOLT
is a new resource for OU students, a self-instructional tutorial
to teach them basic library and research skills. It covers the research
process from initial topic selection to citation styles and the
issue of plagiarism. There is a link to BOLT on the Libraries'
home page or it can be
accessed directly from
http://www.library.ohio.edu/bolt/index.
Its content is organized into six modules:
| 1
- Starting smart |
an
overview that introduces students to various types of sources. |
| 2
- Choosing a topic |
provides tips on broadening and narrowing a topic and discusses
search concepts. |
| 3
- Finding Books |
describes how to find books in ALICE, our online catalog. |
| 4
- Finding articles |
assists students
in practicing searching, using Academic Search Premier article database. |
| 5
- Using the Web |
includes the comparative evaluation of Web sources and a brief primer on INFOTREE, OU's subject
gateway for library resources and research. |
| 6
- Citing sources |
a module that includes information on citing sources, plagiarism and copyright. |
Each
of the six sections takes about 10-15 minutes to complete, and students
can do this on their own time outside of class. Each of the modules
is followed by a short quiz. This quiz can be e-mailed to course instructors
Who
Is It Designed For?
BOLT
is designed for students in classes with a substantial writing component
or introductory-level research, especially for English 105 and UC 105. However,
we hope instructors of other classes will find it useful and assign it to their students.
How
Can Instructors Effectively Use BOLT with Their Courses?
Please
have students complete BOLT before they begin their
research or attend a library session. Students can complete BOLT
on their own time and submit their quiz results to you.
Each module
is followed by a short quiz and a results page, which provides a
summary of questions answered right or wrong and an overall percentage
score for that module. Students can e-mail their results page to you.
We have not assigned a "passing grade"
for these results, but leave that to your discretion, (e.g., whether
or not you consider 80%, etc. a passing score). Many instructors
have chosen to give extra credit points to students who complete
BOLT.
Does
BOLT Replace Library Instruction?
No!
We continue to offer course-related library instruction and hope
that you will incorporate it into your syllabus. Timing is important!
Please schedule library instruction with us for a date after
your class has received a research assignment, so students learn
about searching databases at a time when they need to know this
information. Also, we generally do not offer instruction sessions
without an accompanying assignment. Research has shown that:
- Students
learn best and retain most when they need the information.
- Library instruction
is more effective when the course instructor is present.
- Library instruction
is more effective when coordinated with a class assignment.
Alden Library
has two electronic classrooms, which librarians use for computer
demonstrations and hands-on training. These are heavily booked,
so please schedule early to reserve the date and time you need--preferably
call us at least 2 weeks ahead. Requests will be filled on a first-come
basis. To arrange a library instruction session contact:
Andrew Stuart
phone: 593-2698, email: stuarta@ohio.edu
or
Your department's
subject bibliographer. A bibliographer list is located at
http://www.library.ohiou.edu/libinfo/staff/bibliographers.htm
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