Library and Research Skills Micro-Course

Welcome to this micro-course on Library and Research Skills. This is designed to familiarize you with some of the core skills involved in doing research assignments and using the library.

Each of the 4 sections in this micro-course consists of a page of learning content, a brief list of readings and tutorials, and a quick set of hands-on practice exercises.

Completing the course and the accompanying quiz, which should take you 90 minutes to two hours, requires some hands-on work and practice using the skills discussed. You will need to read through all the information and readings(and also do the practice exercises) in order to pass the quiz, which generates a Certificate of Completion, which you can opt to email to an instructor if required for a course.

You will get out of this course as much effort as you put into it. It's highly recommended you try out strategies using the Online Library and take notes and jot down your ideas as you interact with this micro-course (this will help you master the quiz at the end, but also help you do research projects more effectively and efficiently in the future, and this habit of mind is a better way to learn anything).

Get Started

There are many ways to approach a research assignment. What steps you should take will differ depending on the assignment and the information needed to complete it. The sections after this cover the key aspects of doing effective and efficient research. However, there are two maxims that apply to doing any academic-level research assignment:

1. You probably don't know as much as you think you do about navigating or finding University library services and systems, and doing academic research effectively (watch this video: What is academic research?). Research, especially at first, takes more time that most think it does. Plan out your time effectively using The Assignment Calculator.
2. If you don't already, consider adopting a strong note-taking habit when reading scholarly articles. This means going beyond highlighting text. Jot down notes and summaries about your sources in your own words. This is essential for learning, but also a key building block for understanding and extracting the best information from jargon-filled, hard to read scholarly sources.

For help using the library at any time

On the right side of the library home page are several avenues to contact a librarian for specific help using the library. There is a 24/7 live chat service available, although during off hours you may instead see Howie the Chatbot (you can click through the Chatbot to get to live chat by clicking 'Yes, help me find an answer', then click the drop-down menu and select 'Something Else' and Submit). Below that are additional help options to call, browse FAQs, or submit an online question form.

NEXT: Use the left menu or the  'Next' buttons that appear in the bottom right of each page to proceed through the course. Read the instructional text and read/watch the included tutorial materials carefully and fully. You will likely not be able to complete the quiz at the end if you don't do this.