To continue the conversation and see how research librarians can work with you and your course, please feel free to contact us:
Rose Beranis, Wellness Librarian & Experiential Learning Coordinator
Susan Chatham, Research Librarian
Amy Harrell, Head of Collections, Research, & Instruction
Jeff Liszka, Humanities Librarian
or...
Learn more about instruction and activity options.
Request a research instruction workshop/activity.
Short Description:
This session was for the international studies senior seminar. For their final assignment, students were expected to write a 20-25 page research paper. The professor requested a session that included strategies for pre-research and finding scholarly articles. In this workshop, students learned about the beginning steps in the research process (pre-research). We examined initial investigations into topics discussing methods of gathering general context through sources like Wikipedia, Google and various websites that might be relevant to their topics. Then we translated those initial steps into searches to build develop keywords and search terms related to their topics.
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This session was for an International Studies Senior Seminar but is adaptable and appropriate for all course levels and disciplines. For their final assignment, the students in the seminar were expected to write a 20-25 page research paper. The professor requested a session that included strategies for pre-research and finding scholarly articles. One integral strategy is to develop a set of keyword/search terms. Students often struggle with developing relevant keywords and search terms. In this workshop, we discussed building an effective body of search terms. With a worksheet provided, students began the construction of their set of keyword/search terms, and then had an opportunity to employ them by searching for scholarly and peer-reviewed articles in a library database best suited for their topics.
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This workshop introduced students to searching within the research databases PsycInfo and PsycArticles. In their assignment, students were required to locate empirical journal articles to provide analysis and evidence for their research topics. Within the workshop, there was an explanation of the contents of an empirical source, how to search both databases simultaneously, and then how to access full-text PDFs of articles. Students also learned about filtering results by publication date, empirical articles and peer-review. Students had an opportunity to search the above databases with the skills learned, and ask questions of the instructor and research librarian
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This session was designed for students in a 300-level Public Policy internship seminar where students were required to write an op ed for the CT Mirror. By the end of the session students were expected to be able to identify and locate the types of information sources needed for public scholarship and to critically assess the credibility of web resources by using the lateral reading techniques of fact checkers.
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This session was designed for a 300-level Public Policy and Law class where students were required to write a literature review on a topic related to restorative justice. Students were limited to books and scholarly peer-reviewed articles. The lesson plan included a reading of Jeffrey Knopf's article "Doing a Literature Review" and an introduction to using a synthesis matrix for writing literature reviews adapted from one matrix created by North Carolina State University Writing and Speaking Tutorial Service.
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This session was designed for an International Studies senior seminar. The theme of the course was "create dangerously" after Edwidge Danticat's book by the same title. The course focused on Black scholars striving to create histories and stories of their people against the limitations of traditional archives and political repression. The central animating question of the course was, "how do we approach archives, library collections, and research through a Black feminist political and ethical framework?" This session was designed to help students identify the advantages and disadvantages of traditional paths for locating scholarly sources, including the potential pitfalls of citation chaining; to understand how citational practices are political and how power shapes which voices are amplified or erased in academic research; and to employ new strategies for finding and engaging with historically marginalized voices.
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