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Library Instruction & Information Literacy

Library Instruction Menu

Standish Library offers workshops on the following topics. We will work with you to tailor these broad topics to your specific class and assignment. Workshops are designed to provide students with hands-on exploration of these tools or concepts. We can also create customized classes that aren't on this menu for unique requests. Contact Freya Gibbon (fgibbon@siena.edu) if you have questions.

Topic Approximate Time Description

 

Navigating the Library

 

30-60 Minutes

 

Introduction to library space, services, and resources.

 

Getting Started with Research

 

30 Minutes

 

Students refine topics and search strategies. Conduct background research using Google and Saint Search.

 

Evaluating Sources

 

 

30-45 Minutes

 

Students identify criteria for source evaluation and assess credibility of content from websites. Think critically about AI results.

 

Searching in Discipline-
Specific Databases

 

30-60 Minutes

 

Identify differences between catalog, database, and open web searches. Decipher database results and records. Narrow, broaden, and refining results.

 

AI and Research 

 

60 Minutes

 

Students describe how LLMs work; address the ethics of AI use and critique the results generated by AI vs other search tools.

 

Citing Sources

 

60 Minutes

 

Students will work with a specific citation format and learn to manually create in-text and bibliographic citations.

 

Zotero Citation Manager

 

60 Minutes

 

Install Zotero and use it to gather sources; learn how to read, tag, and annotate sources in Zotero. Explore MS Word or Google Docs integrations.

Learning Objectives

Information literacy instruction at Siena will strengthen a student's ability to...
  1. Navigate information environments to locate sources appropriate to a given personal, social, or scholarly task;
  2. Evaluate sources for contextual authority and accuracy, thinking critically about information creation and publication processes; 
  3. Integrate sources into academic work ethically, acknowledging intellectual property according to the standards of a given discipline;
  4. Design research methods that embrace the iterative, humble, and inquiry-based nature of knowledge creation.