Introduction

“In this essay, we (Tom, a composition instructor at a large state university, and Glenda, a librarian at a large community college) describe our collaboration in the teaching of an online, research-based advanced composition class offered by the state university where Tom teaches. We describe why, in addition to using the instructional media provided by libraries to help students navigate fee-based subscription databases (also called restricted sources), we develop our own instructional media in hopes of shifting the research practices of our students. We have found that most tutorials are either too general to be effective given the specificity of a particular assignment or simply not used at the point of need. By “point of need,” we mean that moment in a student’s research process when she actually needs access to a certain kind of information. The tutorials that we describe in this article are designed to guide students to information sources that they need to complete the assignment they are working on. The focused nature of these tutorials stands in sharp contrast to generic tours and tutorials.”