How To - Introduce Students to Library Research: Scholarship as Conversation

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Scholarship is like a conversation where ideas are created, debated, and weighed against one another over time. Information users and creators come together to discuss meaning, with the effective researcher adding his or her voice to the conversation

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• Recognize that a given scholarly work may not represent the only, or even the majority, perspective on the issue at hand.
• Understand that students are entering the middle of the scholarly conversation, not the end.
• Critically evaluate contributions made by others and see self as a producer as well as consumer, of information.

1. Provide students with a list of 3-5 sources from different perspectives that shape the conversation surrounding a topic of interest.

      Sample sources: a news article, a tweet from a reputable source, a scholarly article & a literature review.

Ask:

• What perspectives are presented?
• Who has the strongest voice in this conversation? Why?
• How would you involve yourself in this conversation?

2. Ask students to conduct an investigation of a particular topic from its treatment in the popular media, and then trace its origin in conversations among scholars and researchers. How have perspectives changed and why?

       Sample sources: news articles, tweets from reputable sources, magazine articles, blog entries, bestselling novels.

Assignments for the frame Scholarship as Conversation from the Community of Online Research Assignments (CORA).