Term paper requirements

[Gregory Sennema]

All.

We often have undergraduate students approaching our reference desk
asking us to help them find sources for their papers.  Fine.  As we look
together at some of our Research Databases, we invariably come across a
full text article which looks promising; but when I suggest that this is
a possible source for them to use, they shake their heads and say that
they already have the allowed number of web sources they are allowed to
use for this paper as dictated by their professor....

It is apparent that both our students and faculty (let alone myself)
are having a hard time understanding this world of
- print articles in print
- print articles on film
- print articles that are online for free (legal and illegally)
- print articles that are online in a subscription service
- print books in print
- print books that are online for free (legal and illegally)
- print books that are online in a subscription service
- web content on dot com, gov, edu, net (etc.) sites
- other

While there are many questions that can be asked, my specific question
is what can we suggest to our faculty on what type of sources they can
ask of their students to use for their papers?  How can we succinctly
convey that online journal articles in a "subscription-based aggregated
database" (without using these annoying words) are really not on the
internet, but just via the internet?  How can we get around the fact
that Time Magazine articles are available in print, online for free, and
as part of a subscription-based aggregated database? 

In short, what terminology could we suggest to faculty who require that
students look for information from a variety of sources and formats?

Thanks in advance



Greg Sennema
Digital Resources Librarian
Hekman Library
Calvin College & Calvin Theological Seminary
3207 Burton St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
tel: (616) 957-8455
fax: (616) 957-6470