Lesson 4 – Print and/or Electronic Reference Materials (Is it a losing battle?)

Much has been said in our discussion forum about how online reference materials are vastly taking over print materials. Many appear to be in serious dilemma as to whether or not to purchase more print reference materials (i.e., a set of encyclopedia) or to simply shell out monies on web site subscriptions (i.e., World Book online). Surprisingly for me, in my two years of being a TL and assisting elementary students and teachers conduct research, I never really found myself in this predicament. I think this is largely because I often use multi-sourcing as a research tool.

In multi-sourcing, my students are required to use five different types of reference materials when conducting their research. I like multi-sourcing because it does not force me to choose one source over another. As a TL, I believe it is my job to market the value of each and every reference material that I have in our library. Since multi-sourcing requires the use of all relevant reference materials in our library, I first and foremost provide my students a thorough overview of what each reference source is all about – its purpose, use, importance, pros/cons and several examples – before I set them off to use them in their research project. In the case of print versus online resources, multi-sourcing provides an opportunity for my students to utilize both types of resources equally well.

Multi-sourcing as a research tool exposes my students to the various ways by which information can be interpreted and presented. Using print resources in their research, my students learn how to critically choose the most useful resource by looking at book titles, authors, publishers and copyright information. It teaches them to use table of contents, indexes and subject headings to locate information. As well, using print resources help them master the skill of notetaking by looking for keywords and highlighted clues in paragraphs of information. On the other hand, using online resources help make them “word-smiths” by knowing which keyword to type in order to generate the most relevant “hits.” They also learn how to critically evaluate multi web resources on the same topic. Finally, in using both print and online versions of the same resource (i.e., Worldbook), my students learn to evaluate for validity, relevance and appropriateness of presentation.

In essence, using both print and online resources provide for much richer research experience than using just one or the other. Hence, at least I think, TL’s of today need not ever so hastily make the decision of discarding their print reference materials in order to focus more solely on electronic sources. As well, the multiple challenges (i.e., frustrations, confusions, uncertainties) that students face when using one or the other should be effectively addressed, instead of avoided. Once TL’s have educated their students fairly well on the value of each reference source in their library, their students can then make their own educated guess on which type of resource to use in their future research projects. I believe that restricting their access to any type of resource right off the bat due to our own biases will certainly not help them become critical thinkers and effective researchers.