I am really liking a blog I recently started reading, called Please Be Quiet. She was able to go to LOEX 2008 and provides summaries for the sessions she attended. I am so jealous now that I am reading these summaries.
I am particularly interested in Session 3, and the idea of starting off an instruction session with Internet searching since that's what they know. Then move them into Google Scholar, then into the databases. This provides a better opportunity to show how database searching is different and explain why (more complicated = more sophisticated and precise!).
I need some good ideas for next fall to jump-start my teaching, and I think this may be the first thing I try. It's not active learning, but we can get some hands-on activities in there and it could be really great.
However, I will have to figure out how to fit in reference books into this structure...
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Two of our reference librarians went to LOEX, and the session you're describing made a big impression on them as well. Given the reality that most students start their high-school research on the Web (rather than encyclopedias and the catalog as in my day), it's a good place to start with freshmen, and then show how library resources can bring you a step deeper (not to mention demonstrating authority and credibility issues along the way). As for active learning, we're thinking about a think-pair-share activity in which students research the same topic on the web and in a generalized research database, then compare notes and describe their experience to the class. But fortunately, we have three months to figure this out!
--Jeff
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