Instruction Services
Librarians are available to students and faculty by appointment for individual or small-group research consultations; and every year we partner with faculty to teach hundreds of classes how to do research.
Research Appointments
Each year our librarians meet one-on-one with hundreds of students and faculty.
Scheduling a research appointment with a librarian for in-depth assistance with research sources and strategies is a popular option when research needs are more complex or require more time than a Reference Desk visit or online chat session can handle.
Research appointments can be in-person in the library, or online via Zoom so we can help students at a distance.
Here are some examples of real research appointment topics that we helped students with last year:
- I am analyzing metaphors in Through the looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and Italo Calvino's story "The Collapse of Time" to show the differences in cultures that metaphors in different languages reveal.
- I am researching what cities would be the best fit for the MLS (mainly looking at possible revenue). To do this I have been searching for some market characteristic and other variables. Some examples of variables are Number of Businesses that make over $50 mil in an MSA, MSA Youth Participation Rate in Soccer, MSA Cost of Living Index, MSA Income Level, and Soccer TV viewership.
- In the elderly population, how does caregiver workload, organizational resources, and emotional and job demands contribute to elderly abuse?
- I'm a first year PsyD student and haven't been in school for a decade so could use a refresher on the resources. Specifically I'd love a more detailed look at RefWorks and some guidance on how to keep track of the full text of research papers I come across this year that I may want to reference in the years to come.
Classroom Instruction
Our librarians taught nearly 500 library research classes last year.
We work with faculty to schedule library instruction sessions for their classes. These are hands-on sessions, encouraging students to learn about and feel comfortable with the library’s resources. Students learn about research strategies, and how to use the library’s resources and evaluate their results.
We introduce students to library research early on in their composition and public speaking classes, and reach many of them later with more advanced and discipline-focused instruction in classes for their major areas of study.
Many of our classes are taught in the library's classroom, which provides both fixed desktop computers as well as flexible seating. Our librarians also visit faculty classrooms on the main campus, and can teach library sessions online for classes meeting at a distance.
Online Research Guides and Tutorials
Our librarians have created more than 200 online research guides for finding the best research 
sources available at the library.
There are guides to basic research, such as "How to Find Scholarly Articles"; guides for specific classes, created to go along with a classroom library instruction session; and guides for broader subjects areas, such as Biology, Education, or Literature. Find our research guides here.