Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - An outreach program at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Karrmann Library helps introduce area high school students to college-level research techniques and resources.

John Berg, coordinator of Public Services at the UW-Platteville library, introduces students to the facility and its large collection of traditional and electronic academic sources. He said the "Exploring the World of Information" program, intended for college-bound students in their junior and senior years, is a way to acclimate these students to college-level research.

"The idea is to introduce them to a larger library system," Berg said. "We really focus on the electronic journals and journal articles, and they have free printing for the day."

Through the library's computer database system, UWP students have access to thousands of journal articles. Students who want an academic article from a publication the library doesn't carry may still be able to request the information through inter-library loan, but with the advent of academic computer databases, much of that information is only a click away.

A group of 21 students from Galena High School came for a day of research Jan. 12. District librarian Caroline Gephart said groups of Galena High School students have been coming to UWP to take advantage of the academic resources through the program for as many as 10 years.

"We don't have a lot of databases [at Galena High School], and it's hard to access current information. We have inter-library loan, but sometimes it's not as fast as we'd like," Gephart said. "It seems like just as technology has increased, so has the number of things that are available here."

The high school students had been developing research papers on such topics as the depletion of fossil fuels and the treatment of prisoners under the Geneva Conventions. During their day at UWP, the students took a tour of Karrmann Library and were introduced to the campus through a multimedia presentation. Some received door prizes of UWP T-shirts and mouse pads. During their three-hour work session, they were able to comb the electronic databases as well as conduct research the old-fashioned way: by looking up call numbers and retrieving books.

"This is like being in a candy store really. There is so much available," English teacher Linda Howard said.

While new technologies change some aspects of research, many of the methods endure.

"I see that the research process is becoming easier and easier because of the Internet, but the work of writing research papers ... hasn't changed. You still have to do the work of writing. The skill needed to write a research paper remains the same," Berg said.

Among other schools that have participated in the "Exploring the World of Information" program at UWP are: Barneveld, Lancaster, Platteville, Potosi, River Ridge and Southwestern high schools. Educators from other schools interested in the program may contact Berg via e-mail at bergjo@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: John Berg, Coordinator of Public Services, UWP Karrmann Library, 608-342-1355, bergjo@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Dan Lehnherr, UWP Public Relations, 608-342-1194, lehnherd@uwplatt.edu