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PL SC 456: Latin American Politics

The Assignments

Library Assignment Overview

There are 3 library related assignments due in Lessons 3, 4, and 5. The descriptions for each assignment are listed on this page. You will submit your work in Canvas to be assessed; they are NOT submitted through the course guide. These assignments are worth 6% of your overall grade (2% for each assignment).

At the conclusion of the 3 library assignments, we expect that you will be able to:

  • evaluate information
  • know which information sources are right for you for this assignment
  • access information sources, including both electronic and physical sources
  • find the full-text from a reference in a bibliography
  • use a citation generator to create APSA citations as required for this course
  • identify important sources to use for your country paper and Voicethread
  • index important sources of data that will enhance the quality of your academic work.

You will work through these goals over the course of three weeks. We will identify with each assignment which goal you will be working on and give suggestions for how you know you have mastered this goal. 

If you have any questions about the assignments please ask for clarification as soon as possible so I can provide assistance.

L03 Library Assignment

When you are searching for information, there is a significant difference in the quality and types of resources you will find. It is extremely difficult to know if you are searching with the right terms or if the results you are getting are the most relevant results to you. This first piece of the library assignment will develop your skill in evaluating information. 

For this piece of the library assignment, you will need to watch a video on evaluating information, review the table that shows the quality of information from different search engines, and, most importantly, conduct your own search in LionSearch, analyze your results, and plan next steps. 

Watch this video about LionSearch for more help.

You will also need to know about the CRAAP Test and how it applies to evaluating information.

L04 Library Assignment

In this assignment, you will review citations to determine which have been transposed into proper APSA format, the kind of resource that each citation is citing, and how to locate a resource in the library from a given citation. 

The citations used in this assignment come from the bibliography of the article Ocampo, Jose A, and Jaime Ros. 2011. “Shifting Paradigms in Latin America's Economic Development.” In Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics, eds. Jose A. Ocampo and Jaime Ros. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199571048.013.000.

L05 Library Assignment

In this assignment, you will explore country data: where to access it and how it can be used. 

You will be reviewing data and indicators from:

You can construct your own reports from World Development Indicators, which may be helpful for your country reports. Learn more about creating your own table by watching this video.