101 Library Assignment

Elmhurst College
Physics 101 - Physical Science

Spring Term, 2008

Earl C. Swallow

Library Bibliography "Lab" Assignment

As part of the library orientation "lab" session, you are to use what you learn to prepare a short bibliography. More specifically, you are to choose a course-related topic and then prepare a listing of at least eight (8) critically selected references relevant to that topic. While I have no prescribed format for listing the references, you must specify each one clearly and completely enough that it could be easily found or ordered. You must also indicate whether or not each print reference is available in the Elmhurst College library. [Please note: I am not asking you to write a paper on the topic! I am asking only that you clearly specify a topic relevant to this course and prepare a listing of appropriate college-level references.]

As part of your Internet adventure, you are also to find Art Hobson's Web page and the Web page for the comparable course at his university. Include the URLs for both of these in your bibliographic report.

Some important technical details are as follows:

Appropriate References - The references in the list should be (more or less) scholarly works of some substance. Include no more than one encyclopedia article and no more than one popular magazine citation (Newsweek, Time, etc.). Include at least three print sources and at least three Web sources. Also, provide brief critical evaluations for each of your Web sources. The library Web page for this course includes information concerning citation and critical evaluation of Web sources.

Audience - The bibliographic information should be clear, complete, and specific enough for one of your fellow students to use it.

Due Date - Your report is due "next Wednesday" (one week after the lab session), though you may well be able to complete it during the lab period.

Preparation - The report should be typed. Proper spelling and reasonable punctuation are expected. Use of a word processor is encouraged because this makes the identification and subsequent correction of errors much easier. If you wish, you may send this report to me as a plain text (ASCII) email. If you email it, I will acknowledge it by email.

Purpose - In almost any area of professional endeavor, it is necessary to locate, critically evaluate, and organize information when beginning a project. (The short term paper due at the end of this course is a simple example of such an undertaking in the area of physical science.) This library project is a small-scale example of an effort of this kind.