The library offers a range of opportunities for instructional partnership with faculty. The goal of library instruction is to teach students how to successfully find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. We believe successful library instruction nurtures curiosity and exploration of the Library and its resources while building research skills and awareness of the intellectual and social issues surrounding information. Here are a few specific objectives targeted during library instruction:
Each 60-90 minute Hands-On Research Instruction workshop is customized to the class assignment, research need, and/or field of study. Workshops can be held online at a scheduled time that is convenient for your class.
Here are a few examples of synchronous lesson plans for online classes:
Research Guides are curated online collections of books, e-books, websites, articles, databases, and relevant research how-to's for a specific subject or assignment. Librarians can create a custom Research Guide for any class and students benefit by being able to return to the Research Guide as they complete their course assignments. For asynchronous library research instruction, a librarian will work with you to develop an activity or an assignment for students to complete on their own time.
Here are a few examples:
Choosing a Research Topic
How to Find an eBook
Customized tutorials can provide your students with a virtual research coach for any step of the research process. Tutorials can be created as part of a Research Guide or embedded in Blackboard. Tutorials are another form of asynchronous instruction. They are interactive virtual experiences that walk through a process step-by-step, provide students with immediate feedback and instructors with assessment.
Here are a few examples:
The Research Toolkit is a collection of learning-objects designed to give students the quick answers they need to enable them to be successful in their research. It is full of tips and tricks for finding, using, and sharing information. You can share a link to the entire collection with your students or embed specific parts of the toolkit in your course for students to use at the point of need.
Here are some frequently shared sections of the toolkit:
Ideal for classes that have a substantial research component, Embedded Librarians are integrated into the course to provide targeted, just-in-time research coaching at key points in the semester.
Embedded Librarians can provide customized:
If you are interested in any of the online library instruction options we've highlighted here, fill out the library instruction request form to get started! Your request will be assigned to one of our faculty librarians who will partner with you to create an instructional experience that works for your class(es).