An Introduction to your Library Resources
R22-0984 HCDI10000
This session will introduce students to core library resources and raise awareness of the databases and tools available for conducting searches. The PowerPoint slides are designed to accompany and reinforce a live demonstration of Library Search, Subject guides and the various support available through My Learning Essentials. The trainer may use the slides as a personal prompt. The students will have access to the slides on their blackboard pages.
Supporting materials
- Slides/materials: PowerPoint slides
Practicalities
- Group: 24 students, 1 trainer
- Length: 1 hour
- Discipline: Audiology
- Level: UG Year 1
Learning outcomes
- Access core library resources including Library Search, Subject guides and My Learning Essentials resources
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different search tools
- Understand the basic principles of searching and the usage of search operators
- Identify appropriate tools to use for finding information for your formative essay
Suggested online resources
Shopping for information: introducing subject databases
Planning ahead: making your search work
Knowing where to look: your search toolkit
Getting Results: Guides to Searching Databases
Original Thinking Allowed: Avoiding Plagiarism
Session content
This session takes place early in Semester 1. The purpose is to give a general overview of library services, and signpost online resources and other sources of help that are available. Ideally, the PowerPoint slides should supplement a live demonstration of specific library resources such as the Library homepage, Library Search and the Subject Guides.
A short demonstration of how to do a very basic search may be carried out in ComDisDome or PsycInfo. The purpose of this demonstration is to show how to get started with searching rather than advanced techniques.
Introduction
Slides 1–2 — Objectives — This session will cover…
Introducing library resources
Searching for information
Further Support
Slides 3–6 — Library Search
Library Search — what this does and how to use it
Explain that Library Search will;
Search books, journals, database abstracts
Save items to your e-shelf
Email references to yourself and others
Export references to Endnote, Mendeley etc.
Copy a reference in your required citation style
Point out the functions on Library Search, such as the E-Bookshelf
Slides 7–14- Library subject guides and databases — what these are and where to find them
Show the alphabetical list of guides, highlighting the Human Communication and Referencing guides
Researching your topic — Slide 15
Slides 15–18- focuses on the academic process of establishing WHAT your assignment title is asking you to research and thinking about related words and phrases.
Slides 17 — Sofa slide — What do you See? organise keywords into concepts. Explain how student will prioritise terms and experiment with them when searching different sources.
Activity — Slide 18 — Ask the students to think aloud of some keywords for each of the concepts within the above question
Slide 19–22 Combining searches and using truncation
Slide 23 — Planning Ahead — Explain that searching may involve using many sources — including google, and that it may involve a cycle of searching, reviewing and refining
Activity — Give the students one database and demonstrate a basic search on the questions in slide 24
Use the sample question with an illustration of how to use Library Search and the subject databases. The slides are to reinforce a basic live demonstration. This session is not intended to showcase complex searching. You may not need to show all these slides if you are doing a live demonstration.
In a live demonstration the trainer may use Library Search to demonstrate a simple search using search operators.
Slide 25 — Knowing Where to look — remind them where the subject databases pages are
Slides 26–27 — Evaluating information — show them the checklist and encourage the students to think about their sources of information
Further help Slides 28–37
The slides show examples of some of the MLE resources. The live demonstration can show the MLE pages instead.
Slide 38
End of presentation/ RLUK question
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Internal ID: R21–0867/ R22–0917
Revised 26 August 2022
Medium link; https://medium.com/p/3fc23311377d/edit
