Events This Week
At the Library

• Message from the Head Librarian
• Keep Your Library Card Privileges
• Library Lessons
  • Lesson 1:  The Research Problem (Chapter Three)
  • Lesson 2: The Literature Review (Chapter Four)
  • Lesson 3: APA Writing Style
• Circulation Desk
• Next Week at the Library

A Message from
the Head Librarian

Welcome to the First Floor of the Library!  Congratulations on your move out of the Lobby Level and onto the First Floor where your Library Lessons each week will consist of exploration, discussion, and application of the first 3 steps in the process of research - Identifying a Research Problem, Reviewing the Literature, and Specifying a Purpose and Research Questions or Hypotheses. Even though you have moved up to the First Floor, please do not forget all that is offered for you on the Lobby Level and that you will likely visit on your entry to or exit from the Library each week - Information and Circulation Desks, Reading and Reference Rooms, Library Events and the Lounge, etc.

I have read everyone's comments on the patron feedback and the consensus is that most are enjoying the organization, instructions, and clear expectations (most frequent comment) as well as the inspection lists. I do hope these will relieve any stress you may have about missing assignments (another frequent comment). For the most part, comments were positive and I certainly appreciate that. A few feel a bit disoriented and are afraid they are missing something. Many are overwhelmed by the amount of information. This is a natural feeling when coming into an all new environment. I think most of you will find that the environment will become somewhat mundane after a few weeks with everything looking the same. Some of you will find this very comforting. To address some of the questions within the feedback for last week I want to remind you of the following:

• Do not forget that everything that is due for a grade each week is listed in the circulation desk each week (this is on page 3 and is a bulleted list that provides everything that is due compiled from the different lessons). However, to try to work off of the list without reading the complete content and instructions that go with each task is a recipe for disaster. You might want to review the circulation desk list to get a handle on the work load for the week but do not forget that you should carefully read and complete directions on pages 1 and 2 prior to attempting a task. There are no hidden assignments or instructions. It is all right there in the 3 pages you access each week.
• To access past weeks as well as future weeks (should you find time to work ahead) you should use the Events Calendar (Schedule) page. Here you have a link to each week of instruction as well as another list of the assignments due each week. You will see that each week is listed with the topics. The topic is a link that will take you to that week's lessons.

A few were worried about there still being blanks on the checklists. A blank simply means that it has not yet been assessed so do not worry. Worry about the zeros and communicate with me if you think it is in error. I know a few of you are still trying to get on the listserv, etc. A zero can be changed to an X or an L depending on the circumstances.

Most of you seem to be finding their way around the library. Coming to a new library and having to orient yourself quickly is never easy. As you become accustomed to the format of the library I hope you will be able to use your time efficiently and effectively while you are here. Please continue to provide me with feedback.

I have read the week one posts to the icebreaker. We have quite a cast of characters in this course. Many of you did a great job of not only reading and replying to others' posts but also to those who responded to you. Everyone seems to be doing well and I hope the great posts continue. We had a few in chat last week. I hope to see more in the future but this is not required so no need to attend chat unless you desire that form of communication. We will not have chat every week. I will monitor attendance and make decisions on a week to week basis.

I am working on reading and replying to each of you that submitted a reaction paper. I always enjoy reading them. They give me a better picture of who you are and what your goals will be throughout the course. One patron noted that beyond simply getting an "x" for submitting an assignment each week they would prefer that they receive feedback and a grade. This does happen in this course and for drafts and other critical assignments you will receive individual feedback from me to assist you in improving future assignments. Please do not hesitate to ask for feedback as you feel you need it.

This week I am issuing the following reminders:

• Asking for Help:
  If you send me or Melissa an email, please include the course name or number in the email message. If we have to check 4 or 5 class lists to first determine which course you are in, then it will further delay our response to you. Also, if you encounter a technical problem, simply telling us that "something did not work" is not sufficient (and it will further delay us in helping you because we will then have to send you another email to ask for more information). If you encounter a technical problem, please be as descriptive as possible and include information like the exact text of the error message (if applicable), what you were doing when the error occurred, etc.

• Quizzes
  The correct answers to the quizzes will be available only after everyone has completed the quiz. While you can view your score immediately after you submit the quiz, some quizzes will have short or long answers or fill in the blanks that will make it necessary for me to hand grade these items. This will not be completed until the following week. Once everything has been graded and answers posted you should feel free to send me any questions you might have for clarification, etc.

• Using the pager in elearning:
  While there are multiple ways to contact both me and Melissa - the pager in the elearning system is not one of them. The pager in eLearning only works if both parties (the one sending the page and the one receiving the page) have it enabled and of course requires constant logging in and monitoring within the system itself. Please do not use the pager in eLearning to contact me or Melissa. If you need us, please use email.
  
• Circulation Desk:
  In general, I am a pretty kind librarian.  I know everyone would like to know exactly at Wednesday @ 5 if I have any overdue items that need your attention.  If you think about this, you can see the impossibility of this really happening (especially when some of you will be making a mad dash at the last minute to finish:-).  Things are not due until then and while I am pretty good, I am not THAT good.  If I continually kept up with everything each individual did every day that is all I would do all day every day. It is most efficient for me to wait until Wednesday evening when the due date and time is past to begin working on checklists.  I certainly try to get the checklists up as soon as I can after that but I make no promises except that it will be up by Friday.  On occasion, I expect there might be something that you forget and you will not realize it until the checklist is updated.  Don't fret...just send me an email, explain the oversight and get it done.  I am rather understanding when such situations arise as long as it is not habitual. In return, there will be occasion when I might overlook something and you should feel free to send an email to Melissa to check into it (she is great at making sure I keep the circulation desk free of problems and clutter).
• Please, please sign your emails with your name.  This is for me as well as everyone else in the course. If you have not investigated the option of creating a signature file for yourself that will automatically do this for you at the bottom of every email you send from your personal account then you should probably look into it.

APA Tidbit

This week's APA tidbit is illustrated by a quote from page vii of the Galvan textbook.

This book was written for students who are required to "do library research" and write literature reviews as term papers in content-area classes in the social and behavioral sciences.

In this sentence the double quote marks set off three words (do library research) as having some special meaning the author wants to convey to the reader.  Several other words and phrases are set off on page viii.  If Galvan were strictly adhering to APA writing conventions, is he correctly using the double quote marks?  If not, what should he do?  Check out pages 82, 83, 100, and 101 of the APA Manual for guidelines to answer these two questions. 

The Galvan text was recommended, not required.  I do plan to refer to some material in it from time to time.  If you purchased Galvan, please e-mail me a confirmation.  If you did not purchase it, do not e-mail me.  Your response will help guide my reference to it.

Our goals this week are to:

• describe and outline the requirements of the exhibits (assignments) you will display in this course
• identify a problem in which you are currently interested and evaluate if the problem is researchable
• begin the process of justifying your research problem based on past research and personal experience
• identify the audience for which your research is intended
• evaluate other researchers' "Statement of the Problem"
• write a research problem statement
• search for and identify at empirical, refereed articles related to your research topic and receive approval
• apply appropriate criteria to assess the relevance of the empirical articles you find
• begin constructing your own literature map for your research topic based on the articles you begin to identify
• be able to apply APA guidelines including: title page, header, levels of headings, reference page, end-of-text references, and within-text references using the Fifth Edition APA Manual (the one you bought for this course)
  

Don't Forget Your
Library Card!

Task #1:
Complete the Library Patron Feedback Form.

Task #2:
Download, view, and/or print instructions for setting indents in MS^® Word (if you do not know how to set first-line or hanging indents): Settings Indents in MS Word (99 KB PDF file)

Task #3:
Download, view, and/or print instructions for inserting page numbers in Word documents (if you do not know how to set up automatic page numbering): Inserting Page Numbers in MS Word (3.12 MB PDF file)

Contact the
Library Staff

Need Help?

Have a question but can't find the answer? Here are some options:

• Check the FAQ page to see if your question has already been answered.
• Email the Head Librarian (Dr. Curda) .
• Email the Assistant Librarian (Melissa).
• Check with the other library patrons.

Now let's move to our Library Lessons
for This Week!