A well-designed course-related library assignment is an excellent teaching tool. Effective assignments develop students' research skills, critical thinking abilities, and subject knowledge. By working together, librarians and instructors can develop assignments that enhance pedagogical objectives and minimize frustration. If you are unsure where to start please email us at libraryinstruction@uwindsor.ca and we would be glad to assist you with individually tailored assistance integrating the library and its resources into your course/assignment.
We Can Help!
| Department or Faculty | Librarian | Booking Info | |
| Faculty of Education Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Nursing Faculty of Science | Adam Mulcaster | Adam.Mulcaster@uwindsor.ca | Book a virtual appointment with me |
| Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS) *except School of Social Work and Visual Arts | Anne Kaay | akaay@uwindsor.ca | By Email |
| Odette School of Business Visual Arts | Annie Kavanagh | kavanagh@uwindsor.ca | By Email |
| Faculty of Human Kinetics School of Social Work | Sharon Munro | smunro@uwindsor.ca | By Email |
| Statistics and Statistical Software | Rong Luo | Rong.Luo@uwindsor.ca | By Email |
| Scott Cowan | scowan@uwindsor.ca | Sabbatical - Returning July 2026 |
Overall Tips for Developing Assignments
Objectives -- Good assignment design begins with clearly articulated objectives. What are the subject-specific goals you hope to accomplish with your assignment?
Currency -- Libraries and information sources are in a period of constant change. New sources appear and methods of accessing information are evolving. Please check with a librarian, to ensure that students are being directed to the most current sources. Also, it is important for students to be aware that information about very current topics may be limited to newspaper sources, as journal articles and books on current events take time to appear.
Feasibility -- Please ensure that the library holds the needed information. A familiar source from your own collection or another library may not be available at the Leddy Library.
Variety -- It is important to incorporate choice into assignments so that large numbers of students are not all looking for the same book, article, or index.
Consult -- Let students know that if they need assistance they can email leddyreference@uwindsor.ca and we will ensure they receive the support they need.
Time frames -- Students new to library research find library assignments very time-consuming. Deadlines for different stages of the assignment are useful for larger research projects.
Web Reality -- For most assignments students should neither be directed to find their information exclusively on the web or be told to avoid the web. Many high-quality, expensive online scholarly research tools are made available by the library on the web. These resources are not to be confused with what is freely retrieved by searching the web through Google or some other search engine. If you do not wish students to search the "free" internet, please be specific about what you wish them to avoid. Students often become confused about which online sources are acceptable to their professors.
Citing Sources -- If there is a documentation style you prefer, it is useful to specify the style when the assignment is introduced.
A Copy for Us -- Provide a copy for us so that we can be aware of the types of questions your students may be asking. This can be sent to libraryinstruction@uwindsor.ca
Pit-Falls to Avoid
- Unannounced class visits -- If a visit is arranged with us beforehand, we can provide instruction. If you are not requesting an instruction session, it is still a valuable courtesy to alert us about a group of students arriving en masse. There may already be a class scheduled at that time. In addition, some of our electronic tools have a limited number of simultaneous users, so we cannot accommodate a large number of students searching the same tool at the same time.
- Assuming students have research experience -- Many students, even at the graduate level, lack basic research skills and familiarity with libraries. And those with introductory-level skills will not be prepared for the research demand of upper-level courses and subject-specific resources.
- Limiting resources too narrowly - If students are all looking for the same limited resources, the topics should be broadened.
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