Locating articles from a citation

From Library Instruction Wiki

One way I like to test students' understanding of using the library is to have them locate an article from a citation. I will usually give them a citation and then have a race to see who can locate the full-text first. After several have found it, I'll ask for a volunteer to demonstrate how they located it. Inevitably, there will be multiple ways that they accessed it, and it is not always the easiest or most intuitive route. That gives me the opportunity to ask how others found it, or to demonstrate a more efficient plan.

Since I usually do this exercise after doing a quick demo and tour of the electronic journals list, the electronic databases and the library catalog, I would assume they would start with the electronic journals list, but they almost always choose to begin looking in Academic Search Premier.

I like to give them at least 2 citations to find with one being available through a database and the other available in print. If you want to get across the idea of requesting an ILL, you could even give them a citation for an article that you don't have access to any other way.

Brenda Kliethermes - Concordia University

This is a really great activity. The students seem to enjoy the challenge--and it's very eye-opening for librarians! I tried it without giving much advanced guidance, and I was fascinated by the ways students chose to search. Thanks for the suggestion!

Miranda Bennett - University of Houston