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Getting the Most Out of Your Library Instruction Session
- Give your students a research assignment before your library session. Although we do offer general sessions, library instruction is most relevant to students when they have a research assignment that they are working on.
- Let us know in advance if there are examples you don't want us to use. During our demonstrations, we often give examples using keywords. From past experience, we know that sometimes faculty members prefer us to limit our examples to certain topics for personal or other reasons. If that is an issue for you and your class, please let us know in advance of your session!
- Share the assignment with us in advance of your session. Please share your assignment(s) with us in advance so that we may prepare a session that is tailored specifically to the needs of your class. You can share the assignment by copying it into the notes section of the instruction request form.
- Consider the issue of breadth vs. depth. Wanting to get the most out of their library session, faculty often request the maximum content possible for one session. The more content in the session, the less depth we can go into on each individual topic. More content does not necessarily mean more learning is taking place; in fact, the opposite is often true. Ask yourself what your students would benefit from the most during the session, and fill out your request accordingly. Another thing to consider is that we do offer follow up sessions for new material.
- Limit last-minute changes to your session request. Please let us know ahead of time if you would like to change your session's topic(s). Librarians prepare for each class in advance, so we request that you refrain from changing topics on the day of your session; last-minute change requests will be handled on a case by case basis by the librarian conducting your session. If you would like to revise your request, please contact the library with your modified request at least 24 hours ahead of your session.
- Optional: request specific databases for your session. Use the notes section of the request form to let us know if there are specific databases or topics that you want covered. Also let us know in your request if there are specific databases or subjects that you do not want covered. Otherwise, we will use our expertise to select the most relevant databases for the assignment. Please visit the Databases by Subject page for a complete list of our databases.
