Information Literacy Instruction

You trust us for print and online materials that support your research and teaching. You might not know we help in the classroom too. Students at all levels struggle with research. Whether you’re teaching a first-year seminar, a Celtic Studies class or a graduate course in theology, we’ll work with you on a library session to help students meet your learning objectives.

Our librarians plan workshops to meet your needs. We can teach your students in person or online –welcome you at the library or pay you a visit. We can offer a 10-minute overview or an in-depth workshop. We’re flexible. What we teach:

• Database & catalogue searching
• Narrowing a topic and forming a research question
• Appraising what you find
• Distinguishing among primary, secondary, and tertiary sources
• Bibliographies & citations
• Keywords, boolean terms and subject headings
• Literature reviews
• Reading a scholarly article

Library guides in Quercus 

Since you and your students are often in Quercus, we’re happy to meet you there. Kelly librarians can customize library resource guides specifically  for your course and embed the guide on your Quercus course site. 

Assignment support 

We can work with you on choosing question prompts and reviewing assignments to make sure your students have the materials and skills they need to get them done. 

Credo 

Based on a constructivist teaching approach, adapted from the Association of Research Libraries  Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, our library instruction program helps undergraduate and graduate students in mastering the skills and concepts needed for course assignments, especially those in the St. Michael’s College programs and the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology. Library instruction — known in the library world as information literacy — is one of Arts & Science’s five undergraduate competencies for “learning and applying knowledge” in Honours Bachelor degrees at the University of Toronto. 

Our program follows four principles: 

• Research matters: Research matters because it helps you distinguish between credible sources and doubtful ones. Not only do the ideas, facts, expertise, and reality itself, deserve respect, but the conviction of humanity’s common future depends upon it. 
• Research is iterative: By doing things repeatedly, you not only learn physical and mental habits, you also gain intellectual acuity by surmounting increasingly challenging assignments and gradually asking more complex questions.  
• Scholarship is conversation: By researching,  you take part in thought-provoking discussions about what is important (e.g.historical events and people; philosophy and theology; building bridges; curing diseases; how people interact and behave; plants and animals; literature, etc.). You also encounter different views and perspectives to help develop your own point of view. 
• We believe in our students: Learning is supposed to be difficult and university assignments are generally more challenging than high school ones. But intelligence is independent of knowledge. Undergraduates are intellectually capable, and they already know a great deal, either from experience, from schoolwork or both. We helpy ou tap your existing bank of smarts, experience and knowledge in understanding and completing rigorous assignments. 

Who is eligible?  

We chiefly support the St. Michael’s College Programs and the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology, though we happily work with other faculty  in adjoining language departments, the Toronto School of Theology, the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 

Writing & Research Help Centre

In addition to group instruction, we also offer one-on-one teaching. Urge your students to book an appointment with us!