Information skills tutorials

Lim-Yeo Pin Pin, Central Library

The Benefits Students learn how to search relevant databases Students benefit from expert coaching by library staff Collaboration between teaching and library staff Library staff learn about research needs of staff and students

The Difference

• Sessions organised in conjunction with the lecturer
• Tutorial content tailored to achieve the lecturer’s aims
• Students able to have hands-on experience
• Held in SMART Classroom in Computer Centre

The Beginning

A/P Willie Tan from the Dept of Building, School of Design and the Environment in May 2002 approached the Reference & Information Services (RIS) Dept with the idea of conducting sessions for his students taking his Research Methods class (BE3202/BR2112/BU2461 and BS5102/RE5102/PM5102). He sent his notes and what he expected of his students in the course assignment.

The Preparation

Based on Prof Tan’s requirements for his course, a PowerPoint presentation and a worksheet were prepared for the library session. The sessions were tailored for his course and covered:

• formulating a search statement with Boolean operators
• using simple keyword search in LINC
• using an index database to find a relevant article
• using a citation style to cite the article found

The library’s PowerPoint presentation was also loaded on the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) for Prof Tan’s course.

In addition, as he wanted his students to use refereed journals, a list of such journals was compiled for Building and uploaded on LION. The list is available at www.lib.nus.edu.sg/lion/s/indexre.html

The Venue

The SMART Classroom in Computer Centre was booked to have the sessions with the students. It was the first time the Central Library was using it for tutorials for students. This was preferable as students could then have hands-on practice of the databases demonstrated.

We finalised 12 one-hour sessions. They were held from 10 Aug to 17 August 2002. On Saturdays, 3 sessions from 9-12pm were done at a stretch. One reference staff did the presentation and another staff was on hand to help the students with using the resources demonstrated during the hands-on part of the tutorial.

Prof Tan made an appearance at many of the sessions which he had made compulsory for his students.

The Feedback

The worksheets done by the students were collected at the end of each session. The worksheets were given to Prof Tan to review what the students had learnt and also to mark attendance.

It was noted that many of the students had difficulty using Boolean operators and formulating their search statement. Mistakes, especially with punctuation, were made when citing the article they found in the index database. Some students had problems interpreting the information found, such as which is the source and which is the volume number. The sessions often overflowed to the next one, as some students could not complete the worksheet within an hour.

We gave out feedback forms during some sessions and collected 40 from a total of 288 students. Some commented that the sessions should have been longer. We asked 5 questions in the form. Out of 200 (5 x 40) responses, 146 (73%) were rated good and above. The scale used is 1 to 6, with 4=good, 5=very good, 6=excellent. The results of the survey were sent to Prof Tan.

The Future

We are pleased that we will be working again with Prof Tan to conduct similiar sessions for his course next year.

Comments from the students

	/  Superb
	/  Good introduction
	/  Very well presented

For honours year students, graduate students and even undergraduates, the NUS Libraries conducts information skills tutorials to introduce the students to the resources available for their subject area.
They are shown:

• how to use the relevant indexes and abstracts to find articles on their thesis topic or assignment
• what journals are available
• how to obtain journal articles

We also introduce library services available to the student that they would find useful. For example, graduate students can request for document delivery service to get a copy of articles which are not available in the NUS Libraries.

If you need an information skills tutorial to be conducted for your students, please: 

• email or 
• use the electronic form at https://online.nus.edu.sg/library/staff/eforms.html.

Top

Created on 3/1/2003 © National University of Singapore Libraries

Contents Jan 2003