How to do effective documentary research?
For the first time this year, the TBS Library team was able to meet all the new arrivals of B1 during a new Research Initiation module on the 3 TBS campuses (Toulouse, Barcelona, Casablanca).
It was essential for us to be present from the start of their course to introduce them to the library and allow them to appropriate the tools essential for their thinking about a future professional and their academic work.
Should we list all the databases in the Library ?! Boring! Yet another training in supra-theoretical documentary methodology ?! Boring!
The idea of creating a game and making documentary research fun then emerged. After all: couldn’t we approach research from a more fun angle? Our shock team then seized the constraints (limited time, large student volume, very theoretical elements to be transmitted, etc.) and demonstrated creativity to make this special moment of the year a constructive and pleasant one.
To do this, we have therefore partnered with the teaching teams as well as at the service of innovation and pedagogy. Together we have targeted educational objectives, scripted and invented tests, tested and used innovative digital tools.
On your research, get set … Go! “In search of resources” is the name of the game, plunges students into the role of the intern who must respond to all of his boss’s requests in a very short time. And God knows that the boss has a lot of things to ask him… Avoid fake news, find an AFNOR standard, choose the most reliable site, find the figures of a consumer survey… Throughout the activity the student will have to navigate in different databases, check their sources and avoid the traps set by the boss. Obviously the boss will know how to reward him in his quest! Hm .. or maybe not ?!
At the end of the session, the students were invited to share their thoughts on the game. The feedback could not have been more positive and satisfying for the whole team! + 90% of them felt more comfortable finding information and browsing the Library’s site and doing a search in its databases: mission accomplished!
We look forward to coming back next year and the following years with other ideas for the game, to enrich and make it even more complex. This is also a Library: a playground for the mind, renewed access to knowledge, a help and support service.
The TBS Library Team