The challenge: guide students in the Jackson School’s Task Force courses to the many quality resources and services available through the University Libraries and the Odegaard Research and Writing Center, and by doing so, improve the final reports produced by each Task Force.
The solution: have the University Libraries subject librarians partner with Task Force instructors and the Odegaard Research and Writing Center to create a research and writing workshop that will assist Task Force students in creating a research concept map, help them develop research questions they can use to find and evaluate appropriate policy sources, and point them to quality and relevant information resources.
For SIS495A Governing the Arctic, librarians Louise Richards (Fisheries/Oceanography) and Mike Biggins (Russian Studies) and Odegaard Research & Writing Center director Jenny Halpin met with SIS495A Task Force students and instructors and covered concept mapping, tools for critically evaluating resources, and collaborative research and writing processes. Additionally, Richards and Biggins worked with Anna Bjartmarsdottir (Nordic Studies) and Siôn Romaine (Canadian Studies) to create a class resource page that will guide students to recommended resources on researching Arctic governance and policy issues. The page contains links to a wide selection of resources including those purchased by the Libraries as well as quality resources freely available over the internet. Select resources are noted below. More are available at http://guides.lib.washington.edu/taskforce
Background information …
• Arctic Strategy Documents (strategy documents from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, the United States, and the European Union) Link no longer available.
• Encyclopedia of the Arctic (an online encyclopedia covering the Arctic’s environment, climate, history, resources, economics, politics, indigenous cultures and languages, , and many other topics)
Current news & blogs …
• Who owns the Arctic (Blog of Dr. Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia)
• Eye on the Arctic (A collaboration of circumpolar media outlets that seeks to better tell the stories of Arctic communities and people) Link no longer available.
The interdisciplinary nature of Arctic studies meant that multiple subject librarians were involved in creating a class guide for SIS495A, and presenting at the research and writing workshop. Sometimes, you really can have too many cooks and still come up with a good broth!
Note from the Canadian Collections Librarian
