This page has been prepared for Trent Course Instructors.
 

Library Instruction Course: Fall 2023

Please contact library@trentu.ca if you wish to have your Fall, Winter, or Summer course enrolled.

Online library instruction is offered through our Blackboard course called "Library Instruction 2022-2023". It contains four modules:

• Omni: The Academic Library Search Tool
• Leganto: Course Readings & Resources
• Scholarly Citations 
  • how to read them, recognize what they describe, and navigate to them
• Scholarly Articles
  • about journals, scholarly communication, and recognizing scholarly articles

Each module provides instruction through text and screenshots (and sometimes a brief video), as well as a graded quiz. Students move through the modules at their own pace and they can complete the quizzes as many times as it takes to pass with 100%. The modules each take 20-40 minutes to complete; students should expect to spend 2-4 hours on the course.

Once students have successfully completed all four modules, they receive a certificate. The certificate can be downloaded or printed. It counts toward all the courses for which it's required in the current academic year.

The library also provides you with your students' grades after your selected due date. 

You decide what it's worth in your course and when it's due. Suggested text for your syllabus is below.

While the instruction is geared toward first-year students, any student will benefit from understanding these basic academic concepts. All courses are invited to participate. If you wish to include your course this year, register your course with the library. We'll ensure your students are enrolled in the program, answer all questions, and monitor the course.

Syllabus Text

Here's some suggested text to add to your syllabus concerning the library instruction course. You can copy and paste it, inserting the due date and incentive for your course..

Library Instruction

You are required to complete the "Library Instruction Program 2022-23" as part of this course. 

It's due on______________.

It's worth ________ in this course.

You'll find the course listed in Blackboard, under "My Courses". All instructions are provided in the course. The course instructors are librarians: should you have any questions or comments on the course content, please use the contact information within the course to connect with them.

When you have completed the course successfully, you'll receive a certificate. Please download the certificate as proof of completion.

Other Instructional Options

An important role of the Library Research Consultation Centre is to help students learn to use the Library's resources effectively. We do this by offering help with using Library resources (online and in-person), providing instructional guides and webpages, giving classes, and working with course instructors.

• Our most valuable work is done in conjunction with course instructors.

Outlined here are some of the services we can offer you, but we'd also like to come up with something creative just for you. 

In-Class Speaker

We can provide group instruction in your classroom. For first year courses, this can be as brief as a 20-minute introduction to Omni.  For upper year courses, we customize the instruction to what's required for your course, so this is most effective when a research assignment is due soon.

Our ability to provide this service depends upon the availability of space and staff. Evening classes are more difficult to arrange. We invite the course instructior to be involved in applying what we teach to the course expectations.

Research Guides

We prepare general online guides for every subject taught at Trent, as well as course-specific sections relevant to your course needs. These pages can include links to valuable resources, tips on searching, and instruction. 

We'll work with you to ensure we understand what your students need for the course. See our Library Research Guides.  

Talk to Us

Nothing is more important than your communication with us. The more we know about what your students are doing in the Library, the better we can help them. If you're assigning something that requires use of the Library, please let us know. We appreciate phone calls, email, and copies of course assignments. They help us know what to expect. Your Liaison Librarian is your best contact person.

• If we know that an entire class needs to use one specific book (or other material), we can make sure it's available and accessible, and we can refresh our own skills in using it.
• If we know 100 students need to find articles on a particular topic, we can check it out ahead of time and be aware of which strategies are most effective for finding them.
• We can help you design a Library assignment that familiarizes your students with our resources. We can often bring a different perspective to the work, seeing it from both the Library's and the student's point of view. We're aware of many of the problems that can result from Library assignments and we may be able to help you avoid them.

Other

Do you have any other ideas? We'd like to be involved. We want to help you and the students in an informative and useful way.

Contact

Please don't assume that if you spoke with us last year we'll remember it and prepare for it again this year. We need to hear from you each time. Send us a reminder email and we'll follow up with you.

Each undergraduate academic department has been assigned a Liaison Librarian to assist with instructional needs. For general questions, contact library@trentu.ca.