primary sources

Leveraging Existing Frameworks to Support Undergraduate Primary Source Research

This exploratory study aims to improve librarian support for undergraduate users as they find, access, evaluate, and appropriately use primary source materials in their research. By approaching object-based information literacy instruction via the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework), this project will promote use of academic library special collections and archives in ways that reinforce the theoretical approach espoused by that document. Primary source evaluations collected before and after one semester of Framework-based instruction indicate that the concepts identified therein are relevant to and support learning with primary sources.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License CC-BY-NC-ND

Evidence of a Life: An Introduction to Primary Sources

This is a lesson plan that centers around a 30-minute activity that gets students thinking and talking about the primary sources they create as they go about their daily lives, in order to prepare them to understand and contextualize the primary sources they encounter in historical research. They will also learn skills that can be transferred to future archival research. This works well as part I of a two-part interaction with classes. Typically, I go to their classroom for this lesson, meeting the students in a room in which they feel comfortable. They then come to the library several weeks later for a research-intensive workshop.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

License Assigned: 
CC Attribution License CC-BY

The Sorting Machine

A classroom activity and lesson plan for first-year students. Your students will learn to differentiate between different categories of items -- such as Popular/Scholarly, or Primary/Secondary/Tertiary -- by playing this fun and easy game.

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Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution License CC-BY

Primary Source Literacy Rubric

This rubric was developed to assess students' written reflections about primary source materials they encountered in class.  Developed by Meggan Press and Meg Meiman at Indiana University Libraries in Bloomington, this rubric is designed for instructors to gauge students' primary source literacy skills for short- or long-form written projects.  It was adapted from the SAA/RBMS Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy.

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License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-ShareAlike License CC-BY-SA

Matters of Authority

This lesson starts with a simple question: "Who knows the most about (topic of your choice)?" In my experience doing this lesson with first year students, a majority of students will identify personal experience as knowing the "most" at the outset. It is common for them to say something along the lines of: No one understands what it’s like to be homeless more than someone who has been through it. Starting from that firm conviction, this lesson is designed to help students think about different ways of “knowing” and what secondary sources (particularly scholarly) are able to accomplish in providing analysis, context, and scope. Learning outcomes: Students will be able to articulate multiple ways in which authority can be ascribed [Authority is Constructed and Contextual]Students will be able to identify primary and secondary sources / scholarly and popular sources and how they are linked to each other [Scholarship is Conversation]Students will seek a variety of source formats and perspectives in their own work [Information has value]

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Discipline(s): 
Multidisciplinary
License Assigned: 
All Rights Reserved

The Information Life Cycle

This handout informs students about the life cycle of information, directing them where to look based on when the even under research happened.  Additionally, a sample research plan is presented.

Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Interdisciplinary
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC
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