By Natalia Gonzalez Blanco Serrano ’24
Northwestern’s librarians are as knowledgeable as the books that line their workplace. They enjoy helping students locate information and try to offer their expertise wherever possible. And right now, Instruction and Curriculum Support librarian Anne Zald is trying to meet students halfway to help them navigate the library and individual research.
“The truth of the matter is that students will ask anyone for help with their research except the library,” laughed Zald. Although she was joking, her comment has a kernel of truth to it — Northwestern students are academically strong and independent, which at times keeps them from seeking help from the right sources. And all the librarians want to do is help the students.
A library search is more complicated than a simple Google search: the phrasing is different, the pool of resources is different, even the way results pop up on the screen is different, too. And although it’s more academic and less intuitive, many professors send first- and second-year students into the deep end of research with little guidance. As a result, Zald has put together a module on Canvas — an online course management system where students can access assignments — to help students navigate the library system with ease and familiarity.
“We are dependent on faculty inviting us into the classroom to meet with students in a large group setting,” Zald said. “It became very clear to us in 2020 that relying only on face to face teaching opportunities wasn’t sufficient.”
Zald began developing the modules then, as a supplement to being invited into classrooms. Since professors have to opt in to having a librarian speak to their class, Zald felt that the modules would be an easier, hands-off approach to explaining library research to students.
The research module itself contains three separate modules that will better help a student prepare their research: developing a research question, deciding on sources, and searching library databases. Each section, which takes about 20 minutes to complete, focuses on a specific shortfall that Zald has noticed consistently in students who seek help. These modules allow students to pick what skills they need to hone, and focus on those without the additional time constraint of scheduling a meeting with a subject-specific librarian.
“The goal is for students who have not had any kind of formal introduction to using an academic research library to learn foundational skills, foundational resources, that hopefully would be useful in a variety of different subject areas, and maybe even throughout their degree,” Zald said.
The module will be available to professors in a few weeks to supplement their course Canvas page. Zald emphasized that the modules don’t need to be for a grade, or even mandatory, but rather an extra resource for students to improve themselves and their academics.
“I want students to do better, I want them to learn more,” said Zald. This wish is clear not only in the clearly structured and worded modules, but also in her concern for the academic well-being of Northwestern students.
“Students will say ‘Gosh, I wish I had known about this before. I can see now how I could have used it if I had known this existed.’ Well, I do too. And I’m hoping that giving students the opportunity at their own time at their own pace to find out about some of those resources might also pique their interest.”
Natalia Gonzalez Blanco Serrano is a Medill School of Journalism senior. The Canvas modules can be added from the Teach with the Libraries page.