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Library Workshops

This guide is a companion to the Library Workshop series.

Library 101 Program Overview

Library 101 Workshops: A Program Overview

The Library 101 Workshop series is an integral part of the University Library’s Information Literacy Instruction Program.  The purpose of this series is to provide Cal Poly Pomona students with in-person/virtual hands-on instruction in some of the basic concepts and skills that make up the field of Information Literacy. 

Cal Poly Pomona defines Information Literacy as the ability to “find, evaluate and ethically use and share information.”  (GE Student Learning Outcome 1c).  The University Library’s Instruction Program seeks to fulfill this goal through the following program learning outcomes:

  1. Students will be able to assess the credibility of a source through thoughtful critique, evaluation and identification of sources.
  2. Students will be able to select sources that best meet their information need based on audience, context and purpose.
  3. Students will be able to give credit to the ideas and intellectual property of others through attribution and/or formal citation conventions
  4. Students will be able to formulate a research strategy based on information gaps or reexamining existing information.
  5. Students will be able to identify the contribution that a particular source makes to their specific research project.
  6. Students will be able to match information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools.

The Instruction Program fulfills these learning outcomes in four major ways:

  1. In-person/virtual direct instruction via our credit-bearing course, LIB 1500
  2. In-person/virtual direct instruction via Course-integrated instruction sessions (one-shots)
  3. Asynchronous instruction via online tutorials
  4. In-person/virtual direct instruction via non course-integrated workshops

The Library 101 Workshop series falls into (and forms the primary component) the last of these four approaches.  The Library 101 Workshop Series delineates itself from the other varieties of in-person/virtual instruction provided by the University Library through its freedom from the limitations imposed through course-alignment, and its flexibility in comparison to the LIB 1500 credit-bearing course.

Unlike course-integrated instruction sessions, Librarians teaching LIB 101 Workshops are free to cover the concepts of Information Literacy outside of the narrow sense dictated by the requirement to align instruction to the needs of a specific course (i.e. the requirement to show how to use a specific database, find sources related to a specific topic, etc.).  Such freedom allows the librarian to highlight concepts in information literacy such as source evaluation, or the intricacies of a particular citation style which often get skipped or skimmed over during a 50 minute (one-shot) due to the need to spend time doing database demonstrations.  This freedom also allows librarians the option to provide in-depth instruction into tools such as Zotero, Google, or Primary Source search techniques that require greater focus than can usually be provided when including these demonstrations with other instruction during a typical 50 minute course-integrated instruction session.

The other benefit of the Library 101 Workshop Series is its inherent flexibility.  In contrast to LIB 1500, which provides in-depth instruction and application of concepts across the field of Information Literacy but requires students to enroll and commit to a semester of instruction with a grade, Library 101 workshops may be taken by students based on their interest and availability without the commitment to take the entire series.

Workshops currently offered the series

  • Library Tour: As stated in the title, this is more of a tour than a traditional workshop, in which students are familiarized with the layout of the University Library as well as the location of the various services the library provides.
  • Explore the Library Website: This workshop introduces participants to the University Library’s diverse online collections that support research success and discovery, and provides participants with some general tips for using library databases.
  • Advanced Google Searching & Google Scholar: While most students are familiar with Google and can perform a basic search without difficulty, this workshop covers some of the more specialized forms of search possible with this search engine, such as how to filter results by color, how to choose strategically choose and organize keywords to get better results, how the web is organized and how to remove invasive results. This workshop also focuses in particular on how to link Google Scholar to the University Library in order to get direct access to all Google Scholar search results to which the Cal Poly students have access.
  • Fake News: This workshop discusses the history of fake news and goes over strategies to identify fake news in everyday life.
  • Finding Articles using the Library’s Website:  This workshop covers how to find articles using  OneSearch, the University Library’s discovery tool, and databases.
  • Finding and Understanding Scientific Research Articles: In this workshop participants will recognized the general organization and common sections in scientific research articles, learn where to search and what to do when searches for scientific research articles are not finding good results, and explore helpful tools and “outside sources” for understanding these articles.
  • Finding & Locating Books in the Library: This workshop covers how to find books using OneSearch, and goes over the basics of how to read a Library of Congress Call Number, as well as how to use that call number to locate a book in the library stacks.
  • Introduction to Primary Sources: This workshop explains what a primary source is and introduces participants to the variety of primary sources available in the University Library.
  • Business Research: This workshop, geared toward business majors, introduces the library’s business databases and demonstrates the types of information available to student researchers.
  • Engineering Research: This workshop, geared toward engineering majors, introduces the library’s business databases and demonstrates the types of information available to student researchers.
  • Cite Your Sources - MLA edition: This workshop explains the structure and logic behind this citation style and provides participants with hands-on activities to become familiar with how to read and construct an MLA citation.
  • Cite Your Sources- APA edition: This workshop explains the structure and logic behind this citation style and provides participants with hands-on activities to become familiar with how to read and construct an APA citation.
  • Cite Your Sources – Citation Tools: This workshop introduces participants to research management tool such as Zotero, and provides them with the opportunity to set up an account and become familiar with how to add sources and create bibliographies.

Typical structure of a workshop:

With the exception of the Library tour, workshops tend to follow this format:

  • Workshops tend to run 50 minutes and are generally scheduled for classroom 2913, which seats 20.
  • Part of the instruction is devoted to lecture, discussion or demonstration of a tool.
  • Each workshop should include an active learning component, where students have the opportunity to apply the concepts they have been taught, or experiment with the tool that has been demonstrated.

 

Updated Spring 2020