35% Final Product:
This is a fuller explanation about we will be doing for our final project, the annotated bibliography.
You will create a document that will be a useful tool for future generations of students who want to know more about public library topics. Your work may be published as a SILS Technical Paper, a resource that we plan to continually update by having subsequent INLS843 classes add more to it. Each of you will have chosen a topic of special interest, a topic you will be leading a discussion on. This is the topic you will use to create your annotated bibliography. We would expect at least 15-20 bibliographic entries per topic. (You don't have to stop at 20, but do try to reach 20).
If two or more of you all are sharing a topic, try to stretch yourselves to include at least 15 entries apiece. They don't all have to be books or articles. You might well want to critically annotate some online resources. You might find the Internet Public Library's own annotated bibliographies a good jumping off point. The final project will be part of the process of SILS putting some useful tools and resources online.
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Condition
To start, what are we talking about? Googling the term gives us a good range of clues.
Cornell University Library asks the question: WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
I think Cornell's 150 word characterization of an annotation is a tad long, but I wouldn't think an annotation should exceed that length
An example of an annotated bibliography on information technology, for example, is Current Cites. If one uses Current Cites to create a bibliography on demand for the topic "libraries" (by typing the word "libraries" into the search box), one gets a pretty good dynamic product. However, for us, a topical arrangement (with an author name sort within the topic) would be a better model.
Other explanations and descriptions
- University of Minnesota's Crookston Library
- Purdue University's Online Writing Lab
- LEO: Literacy Education Online at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota
- However, the model I would like us to follow is the one proffered by SUNY Albany. Follow their five steps to create your annotated bibliographies, using the critical annotation model.
Tools that might be useful
These bibliography templates in MSWord format provide the styles you might want to use so that your bibliographies share a common look.
Download the template; open it and save as either a .doc (for MSWord 2003 and earlier) or .docx (for MSWord 2007). The document contains the styles that you will need.
Plan to send me your annotated bibliography as an email attachment (or as a Google Doc, if you choose). You may use any document generating program you wish, but be sure that the paper meets these specs:
- one inch margins top and bottom, .75 inch margins left and right
- font size no larger than 12 points
- double spaced
- place your name and the page number in the header or footer of each page
I will provide you with an example of what a paper might look like.
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Standard
We will use the American Psychological Association (APA) format for this paper. APA is the citation format most commonly used in the social sciences. If you are not familiar with this format, you should locate a style guide. The following links may be helpful with this format
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the definitive guide to APA format. Every reasonably sized library should have a copy of this work. The APA has a site that offers help in using APA style, but it is not as useful as other, free resources.
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You have a choice of citation builder tools
- NCCU, from the James E. Shepard Memorial Library site
- UNC-CH, from the University Libraries site
- NC State, from the NCSU Libraries site
One of the better resources to assist one in using APA style is Purdue University's APA Formatting and Style Guide.
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Due by
It is due at the same time you would have had to take a final exam for this class, were there a final exam. That means it is due on Friday, 03 May at 1900.
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Standard
For these tasks, the following grading standard will be applied. You may infer from the grade you receive that I felt the performance could be described in the terms in this table.
| Grade | Description |
|---|---|
| H | Clear excellence of thoughtful and well-researched resources, combined with insightful, illustrative, and reflective commentary on the resources - an effort that will make the resultant annotated bibliography a strong research tool for subsequent users |
| P | Entirely satisfactory selection of resources and evaluation of them |
| L | A marginal performance reflecting inadequate research and unimaginative evaluation of the selected resources |
| F | If you try to do the task, you will not see this grade |
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