Library Instructional Services

Library Instruction

The Library offers several different instruction options which are described below.

Class-Specific Orientations

Class-specific orientations are research workshops provided by CRC librarians that are tailored to the specific research needs of individual classes and scheduled for a time during regular class hours. Each workshop aims to provide students with basic library research skills.

Orientation requests: Instructors may request Class-Specific Orientations by emailing Rochelle Perez at rochelle.perez@crc.losrios.edu. Please include the following information in your request:

Will a research paper or project be assigned?

When will students receive their research assignment?

Assignment due date

Preferred orientation date and time

Alternative orientation dates and times (if preferred date and time is unavailable)

Attach a copy of your research assignment and/or syllabus (If you do not have an electronic version of the assignment to attached to email, please send hard copy to Rochelle Perez at the CRC Library)

Based on our experience, students who attend orientations with a list of possible research topics get more out of the sessions than student who have no topics in mind. For this reason, the library highly recommends instructors have their students come up several possible topics prior to the scheduled orientation date.

Online Research Tutorials

The Library will offer Online Research Tutorials (i.e., “library modules”) in a new format to be launched on the library web site during the Fall 2009 semester. Key features of the revised Online Research tutorials include:

More audiovisual, less text - more like "movies" than pages to read

Easy to access (available on the library web site, not via Blackboard or Desire2Learn)

Short and focused (average completion time 15-20 minutes)

Not graded - But students will receive proof of completion to turn in to instructors

Topics for the new Online Research Tutorials and are as follows:

1. Library tour
2. Finding books with the library catalog
3. Getting started with your research topic
4. Finding articles with research databases
5. Internet searching
6. Evaluating materials
7. Citing Sources

Please note that the new tutorials correspond in number to the former “modules.” If students have done the old tutorials, they can still retrieve proof by logging into Blackboard.

Availability: The new Online Research Tutorials should be available Fall 2009. If you are an instructor who is considering assigning or recommending your students complete one or more of these new Online Research Tutorials and would like to be notified when they are launched, please email Emily Bond at bonde@crc.losrios.edu.

Pre-Scheduled Research Workshops

The library will offer a limited number of short Pre-Scheduled Research Workshops during the latter part of the semester. Each workshop includes a 20-minute, hands-on presentation. After each presentation, students are encouraged to stay to receive one-on-one assistance to support their specific research needs.

Benefits of utilizing the Pre-Scheduled Research Workshop option include:

No loss of lecture time, since students attend the Research Workshops outside class time

Shorter, more focused sessions facilitate greater content retention

The topics and learning outcomes for both the Research Workshops and Online Tutorials are equivalent irrespective of format. Upon completion of either, students will receive a proof of participation that can be turned in to instructors.

Faculty may require or recommend that students attend one or more pre-scheduled Workshop sessions or alternatively complete the corresponding newly-revised Online Tutorials. All students are welcome to attend any scheduled Research Workshop sessions to be held in the Library Computer Lab (LCL). Seating is limited to the first 30 students.

A schedule for Spring 2009 Pre-Scheduled Research Workshops will be posted to the Library's web site during February 2009.

Related Services

Class Visits

A librarian will come to your classroom to provide a brief (10 minute) overview of library services and to raise students’ awareness of the resources and workshops available. Please contact Lily Kun at kunl@crc.losrios.edu if you would like to schedule a class visit.

Online Course Guides

Upon faculty request librarians are available to create a course specific research guide. Please contact Mark Ford at fordm@crc.losrios.edu if you would like to request an Online Course Guide.