This document discusses the challenges students face in finding quality online sources and information. It describes an interactive library session designed to teach students improved searching, evaluation, and incorporation skills. Student and instructor feedback indicate the session was helpful and engaging, and that students' search strategies and source quality improved as a result. Students reported learning how to search more effectively and identify reliable sources.

1. THE INTERNET
CONUNDRUM
Sarah Page, Assistant Professor, English
Brittany Richardson, Coordinator of Library
Instruction
Chattanooga State Community College

2. THE
PROBLEMS
• The struggle to
find quality online
sources impacts
students
academically and
in their everyday
lives.
• Massive amount of
information online.
• Misinformation is
commonplace.
• Even good
information can be
diluted or
distorted over
time.

3. A SOLUTION
• Interactive library
session.
• Searching skills
• Evaluation skills
• Relevant to both
their assignment
and their everyday
use of the internet.
• Overcoming “know
it all” syndrome
http://libguides.chattanoogastate.edu/

4. THE RESULT
Librarian’s Perspective
• Interactivity went well, but with some adjustments!
• The session was simple to prepare.
• The session is replicable and relevant to other disciplines.
Instructor’s perspective
• Students enjoyed the sessions, especially the interactive parts.
• Students like going to the library classroom and being taught by a new instructor;
it wakes them up.
• The types, diversity, and quality of sources did improve on their final essays.
Learned what a better academic source is.
• Realized the need to do more work with students to teach them how to better
incorporate information in their papers and provide more context.

5. THE RESULT
Students’ perspective
List three things you learned in this session:
“How to search for better results.” “How to see if a source is reliable.” “Very
valuable tips on searching in google that I never knew.” “ I learned that if you put
something in quotations on a search you will get the phrase and not each word.”
List two things you would still like to know after this session:
“More in-depth search strategies.” “Are there any sites with .org, .edu or .gov that
aren’t very reliable?” “More about searching and how to improve my research.”
List one way this session could be improved:
“More class involvement” “Session was appealing to different types of learning”
“Did a lot of hands on activities that actually help” “I enjoyed and learned a lot. It
was fun believe it or not and it taught me a lot.”