When you want to do research in your school library do you often find your school just can’t afford the resources (or even the librarian) you need? This is why so often we take our students online to do research. In doing this, we often teach students that libraries are not a valuable resource because nothing could be further from the truth. Help your students build research skills by taking them back to the library and showing them the value.
Books Are Important for Research Skills
Books are still important in these digital times. They are researched, vetted, edited and verified by experts. This is not always the case online, it’s valuable to teach students to get their information from a variety of sources. Teaching students to observe and ask questions can be a good starting point for research, but often when we as teachers first assign a research project, they don’t even know enough about a topic to determine what questions they should be asking.
Some students don’t know enough about the different parts of the books to use them efficiently. We usually start by teaching our students different text features. This helps students browse books quickly for information. Read more in our post How to Teach Text Features.
Get this free text features activity in our Resource Library. If you’re not a ninja yet, we can send a copy directly to you.
Librarians Are Valuable Resources
If your school is lucky enough to have a librarian, most of the work finding materials can be done with help. Be kind to your librarian and they will pay it back. Teach students to use your school’s search engine for books. Does your school connect to other libraries? Can you borrow these books and bring them to your school so your students have access?
When taking your students to the library to do their research, they should already have a topic in mind. This should be flexible enough that it can change depending on the resources available. Students can start with a broad topic and narrow it down as they learn more about it.
Public Libraries Help With Research Skills, Too
What services do your local public libraries offer? We were shocked to learn our local public library has access to all kinds of things like archives, city records and historical maps and documents. These tools are far too expensive for our school library to acquire, but access to these materials is priceless. Check to see if your local public library has a community librarian who may be able to point you in the right direction.
Many libraries are switching from owning hard copies of things like newspapers, periodicals, movies and documentaries as their digital versions take up far less space. Check to see if your school or local public library has access or online subscriptions available. You would be surprised at the number of resources that are available.
Research Skills At Public Archives
Have you ever taken your class to visit a public archive? Most have access available to students during a field trip. They will even pull specific materials for you if there is enough time given in advance. Archives are full of historians, too.
Your city, school board and possibly province and territory have resources available. Even newspapers have their own archives. This means there might be photos or new stories available for local or national events. Some archives have archivists who can pull materials and have them ready for viewing when you get there. This saves time but students have to do the leg work to know which resources might be most helpful.
Archives often have the best photographs.
Research Takes Time
The biggest challenge we have found in taking students to the library is time. If you want your students to become experts in how to find materials, you need to take the time to teach them in the library. Model this as their teacher. They need to know where to find the right books. Teach students how to use the library’s search engine to find the right topics.
Besides finding the information, there are so many other skills that students need. These skills are often taught throughout the school years. Students do not come with research skills, so it is important that we teach students the skills they need.
If you are using online sources, you may want to read Find the Fake News and So Much More.
Do you still take your students to the library? Have any tricks or tips to share? Let us know in the comments below.
