Guided resource inquiries: Integrating archives into course learning and information literacy objectives

Abstract

At California State University, Northridge (CSUN), many students lack the skills needed to locate, analyze, and apply essential contexts associated with primary sources. Using these sources requires critical inquiry, which is a fundamental theme in pedagogy, the California State University system's Core Competencies, and the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The authors piloted a Guided Resource Inquiry (GRI) tool that enables teaching faculty and librarians to create course assignments integrating online primary sources. These assignments deliver relevant information literacy tutorials to students using a single interface. With the GRI students better understood the nature of primary sources and how to analyze them critically in their course work. Additionally, students more fully understood the research process, and were more likely to use primary and archival materials in the future.