Information Literacy will enhance your students' research skills:
To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. [...] Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn. (American Library Association)
You can ask your students to book a one-on-one or group consultation with the Subject librarian for research support.
A Reference librarian is available at the library's Service desk from 12:00 to 4:00 pm, Monday to Wednesday.
Invite a Subject librarian to your class for a hands-on workshop. Improve your students' research skills and make them confident, information-literate researchers.
View the Menu of Services for a list of options.
Ask for an online LibGuide for your course and embed it in Canvas. The guides can help your students in various ways:
We can help boost your students research skills with:
| Level | Subject | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic |
Library Introduction (5 min.) |
Identify your Personal Librarian. Know GU-Q library's services. |
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Develop a Research Question (10 min.) |
Formulate a focused, clear, relevant research question. |
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Background Knowledge (15 min.) |
Search the Credo database. Use the Mind Map feature to create meaningful connections between concepts. |
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Basic HoyaSearch (15 min.) |
Search for books and articles. Find and access materials online. Locate physical items with a call number. |
|
|
Citing Properly (20 min.) |
Know where to get citing help. Read citations. Find machine generated citations and correct mistakes, if any. Understand what copyright is, why it is important, and when it is applicable (ex. public domain vs. common knowledge). |
|
|
Primary vs. Secondary Sources (30 min.) |
Define what is a primary source. Use the library and the internet to locate primary sources. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources. |
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Literature Review (30 min.) |
Evaluate scope of research question Use HoyaSearch & other tools to find materials Use other techniques to discover materials: reference sources, forward/ backward citation search, browsing Evaluate sources for authority and relevance Understand the value of a citation tool for carrying out a literature review |
|
| Advanced |
Expert HoyaSearch (30 min.) |
Break down a research question and extract concepts. Find related keywords. Combine search terms. Search HoyaSearch for a variety of content (e- Books, peer-reviewed articles, etc.). Locate and download the full text. Apply subject terms. Copy citations from HoyaSearch records. |
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Evaluate Information Sources (20 min.) |
Evaluate information sources for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose. Distinguish between scholarly and popular sources. |
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Searching for News (30 min.) |
Locate newspaper and magazine articles using HoyaSearch. Search specialized databases for newspaper and magazine content. Set up alerts and feeds on topics of interest. |
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Subject Database Search (30 min.) |
Identify database type based on information need (dataset, image, peer-reviewed Journals, etc). Use advanced search features and techniques. Set email alerts for selected journals. Explore and take advantage of other specialized features. |
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| Specialized |
Expert Google Scholar Search (20 min.) |
Use the Google Scholar advanced search feature. Apply forward and backward citation search. Set connection to the home library. Refine search results. |
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Use a citation tool: RefWorks or Zotero (45 min.) |
Add/ grab/ export references from HoyaSearch, Google Scholar or other websites. Organize references by folders. Use Cite-While-You-Write integrations. Create a bibliography. Share references. |
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|
Multimedia and Copyright Guidelines (30 min.) |
Navigate specialized library databases for multimedia content. Navigate and evaluate an assortment of open access multimedia databases for multimedia content. Understand the unique aspects of copyright and multimedia content. |
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Data and Dataset Searching (30 min.) |
Use specialized library databases to find datasets according to information need. Find, evaluate, and use openly accessible datasets. Explore data visualization options. |
You can always contact your Subject librarian to customize any of the above instruction options to better tailor it to your course needs.
