Reference Management and Digital Literacy

Helen CurtisAcademic Resources Librarian

h.curtis@wlv.ac.uk@helencurtis

Innovations in Reference Management Monday 21st June 2010

Overview

• University of Wolverhampton• Experience supporting EndNote and EndNote Web• Reference management in the context of digital literacy

– How do the tools support the skills?• Applications in learning and teaching

– Embedding practice– Formative and summative assessment

University of Wolverhampton• 23,000 students - full-time: 13,800, part-time: 9,200• Committed to widening participation• 8 Academic Schools plus Graduate School• Five campuses: City, Compton, Telford, Walsall, and

Burton-on-Trent• Department of Learning and Information Services (LIS)

support Learning Centres at each campus• Traditional library services with IT facilities, study spaces, and

support for study and IT skills

Reference Management @ WLV• Long history with EndNote• Site licence for EndNote plus access to EndNote Web via

Web of Knowledge• ‘Wolverhampton Harvard’ referencing style• Established part of staff development programme• Targeted at staff, researchers, and postgraduates• Ad hoc requests for training and one-to-one support for

students • Expertise rested largely with a few individuals

• University Blended Learning Strategy

• Increased use of online resources • Development of graduate attributes

which include digital literacy• Impact of web technologies• Growing concerns around academic

conduct and plagiarism

Drivers

Image credit: RuffLife on Flickr

Digital Literacy

Created using Wordle

A role for reference management?• Significant for digital literacy• Use the tools to develop the information management skills

required in a Web 2.0 world• Less emphasis on learning particular software, more on

behaviour and application• Become much more relevant to undergraduate use• Many new and emerging tools particularly web-based

My Reference Library

Personal library of references

Store and retrieve references

Folders and lists

Format bibliographies

Search tool

My Reference Library

Personal library of references

Store and retrieve references

Groups and tags

Share groups of references

Collaborate with others

New approaches

• Teach the principles of information and reference management

• Involvement in curriculum design/team teaching• Linking use to assessment• Using the tools to aid understanding of referencing and

constructing a reference• Using the tools as evidence of engagement with scholarly

resources• Exploiting the sharing and collaboration features

Making the connections

Constructing References with EndNoteLook at the references below. For each reference decide which type of reference it is and which fields should be used in the EndNote record to format it correctly.

•Maslin, M. (2008) Global warming: a very short introduction. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press

•Russill, C. and Nyssa, Z. (2009) The tipping point trend in climate change communication. Global Environmental Change, 19(3), pp. 336-344

Virtual Reading Group

Using the virtual reading groupSearch for material for your presentation. For each reference you add to the shared group, add your responses to the following questions in the ‘research notes’ field in EndNote Web.

1. How would you describe the information source?2. Who are the authors? What can you find out about them?3. Summarise the main points of information4. Why do you think it is useful for the subject?

“I used EndNote Web to collect all my references and add them into different groups. It is really useful to make notes on the article when I add it to the list. This is much more efficient that just writing in notebooks and I get the feedback from the tutor so I know if I’m on the right track”

“I liked being able to see what others had found who were looking at a similar subject area. I could see the databases that they used and it led me to look at some other sources that I would not have looked at before like Zetoc”

“Everything is in the same place – all my references, my notes, and the feedback from the tutor. I got into the habit of adding the websites that I use all the time and adding my keywords. It’s a lot better than the internet favourites”

“Referencing is really hard for me and it was good to be able to learn with everyone online. When I made the bibliography I could easily see if I was missing something and go back and correct the information. This assignment was the first time I haven’t lost any marks on my references ”

Source of evidence

Evidence your reading and research

Write a 1000 word reflective piece on the use of information sources cited in your project and used for background reading.

Submit your project, your reflective report, and your EndNote library as evidence your research.

Image credit: Treehugger on Flickr

Thank you for listening

Presentation is available online at http://www.slideshare.net/helencurtis/

Questions?