The Library Treasure Hunt: Reach for the Stars. Introducing First Year Students to the Landscape of Scientific Information

摘要

One important task for the librarians at Physics and Astronomy Library at Lund University is to teach the students about the library and its resources. The traditional lectures and tours of the library just weren't working. The library competes with many other introductory activities, such as general orientation, and social events, The aim of the Treasure Hunt is to present the library in a useful and amusing way for new students at the start of their studies. Divided into small groups, the students carry out various tasks at stations in the participating libraries. The hunt takes about two hours and a treasure (a goody bag) waits for them at the end. The evaluations show that the treasure hunt is highly appreciated by the students. They become familiar with the librarians and get to know essential aspects of the library resources. The treasure hunt is important in the students' later studies as it paves the way for further development of their information retrieval skills. A crucial factor to success of the Treasure Hunt is the cooperation of committed teachers. A challenge for the future is to have the Treasure Hunt integrated in all courses as a compulsory element.