Providing Teaching Materials
Spiraling textbook costs, a profusion of formats, ever-more-convoluted interpretations of copyright laws: we know that it's complicated to make available to your students the materials that you want them to read, and to do so affordably and legally. The Libraries offer many services to help:
- In many cases, we can place materials on electronic or print reserve for your courses so that your students do not need to purchase them.
- We can help you determine what you can and cannot legally copy for your students under fair use.
- We can help you find freely-licensed textbooks and other teaching materials for your courses.
Helping Your Students Develop Research Literacy Skills
Research literacy is a set of interdisciplinary, transferable competencies. To be research literate is to know methods of inquiry, to possess effective research skills, to navigate all formats of publication fluently, to know where to start, to discern when to consult a librarian or other expert, and to communicate ideas effectively. It includes the ability to articulate a research information need, to construct complex search statements, to assess the relevance and authority of found documents, and to be capable of synthesizing existing content in order to explore the parameters of her or his research question. It also includes an understanding of the ethical and political dimensions of information in a complex society. Research literacy is the sum of the attributes required of lifelong learners.
See Teaching Research Literacy for more information about the theoretical and philosophical basis for the Libraries' research literacy work. Information about how librarians can work with you to help develop your students' research literacy skills can be found under Tips for Planning Productive Research Literacy Sessions and Sample Academic Research Assignments.
To schedule a research literacy session, please contact your consulting librarian.