Paul J. Gutman Library
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Library Instruction Requests

Guidelines for Success

Please observe these guidelines when requesting library research instruction for your students.

A minimum of two week's notice is required. Contacting your liaison librarian when you are constructing your syllabus is a good approach.

Ideally, each session is assignment-driven, and is guided by appropriate and well-articulated information literacy learning outcomes. Please consult with your program director, Assessment Advocate, librarian liaison or Jordana Shane if you need help determining appropriate information literacy learning outcomes for your assignment.

Every effort is made to provide a hands-on learning experience for your students, either in your wireless classroom, the Library Instruction Space or elsewhere in the library building, or in a Search Hall computer lab.

Unless directly associated with a graded assignment, library tours alone are not sufficient or effective methods of delivering research-oriented instruction. Please work with your librarian liaison to build location and access components into your graded assignments.

Faculty reinforcement of what is learned in the session will help the students to transfer their skills and knowledge to other courses and to other instances when information is needed to solve a problem.

Please consider that:

The timing of the session is important.
Instruction that is offered too far in advance might be forgotten by the time it needs to be applied. Research sessions too close to the due date don't provide enough time for students to explore, organize, and synthesize the information they find.

  • Have the students received the assignment yet? If not, when will it be distributed?
  • Did you instruct the students to do any "pre-searching" or topic exploration yet?
  • If so, where did you direct them to look for information?
  • Busy times of the semester are busy for everyone, librarians included! Please get your request in early, to ensure the timing is appropriate.

Sufficient notice allows for better collaboration

  • Please send the librarian your syllabus and latest version of the targeted assignment(s). Research sessions are assignment-driven.
  • The librarian will want to discuss your assignment so the best information resources can be matched to the assignment requirements
  • Two weeks notice is best if you would like a Research Guide for your course to be created

The instructor's presence is required

  • Your presence reinforces the importance of the instruction session
  • Your students will have questions that only YOU can answer: the librarian cannot provide decisive answers for assignments that will be assessed and graded by you.
  • The time will be most productive when faculty and librarians can work together with your students during the session as a team!

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