Report & Search Strategy Reflections
There are two parts to this assessment task. It is very important that you read both parts carefully first so that you can understand how they relate to each other.
Part A: Report (1800 words)
Choose a specific information organisation (i.e. not a type of information organisation) you are familiar with and have access to (physically or virtually). This might be, for example, your local public library, an academic library, a museum or gallery library, a specialist archives or other information agency like one within a government department or research centre. You are going to explore, analyse and discuss how you might enhance their existing model of information services provision (sometimes called reference/information literacy/research services) to improve user experience.
You then need to write an 1800 word report where you:
Outline and discuss the existing information services being utilised in your chosen organisation – including the tools/technologies used and the techniques employed by the information professionals.
Compare these tools, technologies and techniques with how other organisations of the same type provide their information services.
Critically analyse potential issues and challenges diverse users of the organisation may currently face and make recommendations which could help overcome them; thus enhancing the organisation’s information services provision.
Discuss the implications of your recommendations on the role of the organisation’s information professionals.
You need to support your discussion using current relevant scholarly and professional literature and real-life examples identified through your research.
Part B Search Strategy Reflections (800 words)
Reflecting on your preparation to write the report in Part A, you would have likely followed a number of steps around searching for and evaluating appropriate sources of information to use. These would have included:
Analysing the question and thinking about what you need to do (eg. explain, outline, discuss etc);
Thinking about the information you’re going to need to answer the set question/s (ie. the content);
Developing and refining a search strategy to help you locate appropriate sources of information;
Using appropriate search tools such as library databases to find those quality sources;
Critically evaluating the sources to decide which ones you’ll include or exclude for your report
When you are working as an information professional you may be responsible for guiding clients through this process so it is very important you develop effective and efficient search and evaluation techniques yourself.
In this part of the assessment task, you are going to demonstrate your understanding of by recounting and reflecting on your own search strategies when you were gathering sources to use in your report (Part A). Specifically, you are going to write four short reflections (approximately 200 words each) as follows:
Reflection 1 will describe how you constructed your search strategies – outlining your keywords/search terms/search operators and techniques etc.
Reflection 2 will describe the search tools you would use to find relevant, quality information and why – eg. search engines, databases etc.
Reflection 3 will clearly identify and explain the criteria you used to evaluate your sources.
Reflection 4 will be a reflection about what went right or wrong when you were implementing your search and evaluation processes, including suggestions where you might have made modifications.
You are expected to refer to current relevant scholarly/professional literature and real-life examples identified through your research (such as libguides/library tutorials etc) from the profession in your reflections. You need to cite any sources used within the text of your Reflections and also in a separate Reference list at the end of the assessment task.
Support for this task:
The resources section of the Interact site contains a folder labelled Assessment 1 resources. Here you will find a number of resources to help you with this task.
a) Online research skills support has been provided by CSU and referred to you throughout the relevant modules.
b) A Library Discussion board where you can ask the embedded librarian questions.
c) A synchronous, online class held with the subject coordinator about the assessment. For those who cannot attend, a recording will be made and added to the subject site afterwards.
