If you would like your students to use the library, but don t want to assign a research paper there are alternatives. There are many ways to incorporate the use of library resources into class assignments without requiring a full-blown research paper. Students may actually respond better to alternative assignments which enable them to focus on or master specific resources or aspects of the research process.
Students prepare an annotated bibliography of sources on a specific topic.
Students write abstracts of journal articles on a specific topic. Students compare different accounts of the same event. Students prepare a guide that introduces new majors to information sources in their subject field. Ask students to browse the library stacks where the books in the discipline are shelved. Examine a volume of a relevant specialized encyclopedia and an index.