Library Services for Faculty and Staff

The Association of College and Research Libraries defines information literacy as the set of abilities that allow a person to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

For college students, this starts with knowing how to locate books, journal articles and more, and how to effectively and ethically manage and use those resources.

Students may be overly reliant on the open internet for research, or may be overwhelmed by Buley Library's 200,000 book collection and our many databases (over 150!) Returning students may simply be bewildered by the changes in library technology since they were last in school. Buley Library's instruction program helps all students learn how to use their library to its highest potential.

To schedule an instruction session, click here to fill out our instruction request form or contact your librarian directly. 

Buley Library offers a variety of library research instruction opportunities in the use of its resources and services to all members of the University community. The Subject Specialist Librarians provide course related and individual instruction, teaching students how to better locate, evaluate, and use information, in order to become independent, life-long learners. We offer a wide range of ways to get your students doing research correctly and efficiently. All library instruction can be adjusted for remote learning and online classes.

• General library building tour with a brief introduction to library services. 
   
• Meet your librarian! The librarian comes to your smart classroom for a brief discussion of subject-specific resources and further opportunities for assistance, including one on one research appointments.
   
• General introduction to library services and polices (logging in from off-campus, using online reserves, etc.)
   
• The open Internet and research - the difference between the general internet and scholarly resources. Evaluation of online resources. When and why to use library resources as opposed to the general internet. 
   
• How to locate books in SouthernSearch, the library catalog. Includes Boolean logic, keyword vs. subject heading, and how to request items from other CSCU libraries.
   
• How to locate periodical articles in online databases. Includes selecting a database, the best strategies for searching a database, and differentiating between scholarly and non-scholarly articles.
   
• Advanced library research. Writing a literature review. Differentiating between types of scholarly articles.
   
• EndNote Web. Students learn to use our citation software.
   
• Library Lab. Allows students time to work on a research assignment while the librarian is present and able to provide assistance if needed. 
   
• Introductory tour of the Artists Books Collection. Should not be combined with other types of instruction. Contact Tina Re for more information.

We are extremely excited about working with first-year students! INQ 101 instructors are expected to schedule their class(es) for an introduction to the library, which will help them along in their FYRE projects. Students will get a quick, general overview of the library, plus time to work on their project.

What should FYE students know? This is a list of things that we think every first year student should know about the library:

1) where the library is

2) the difference between the Research & Information Desk, the Check Out Desk, and the IT Help Desk

3) how to log in for off-campus access/course reserves/requests

4) the difference between the open internet and the library’s scholarly online article databases

5) that there is a subject librarian for every major, and how to contact those librarians

6) how to use SouthernSearch to find a variety of library resources and start to differentiate between them

7) how to cite the resources they find

Downloadable Documents