Embed information literacy in your course
Knowing where scientific information can be found and how to use it is of great importance for getting through university. In collaboration with teachers, UBL guides students in information literacy skills: from assessing information to searching in the Special Collections and citation management.
Tutorials give students an interactive and approachable introduction to information literacy. We can set up tutorials, together with a test, in your course environment in Brightspace for easy retrieval. Contact your subject librarian for more information.
| Tutorial | Learning objective |
| Working with the catalogue | This tutorial teaches students how to loan a book, explore articles and search by author or subject. |
| Finding general and subject specific information |
UBL offers tutorials focused on a specific subject area. Topics covered include Wikipedia, Google Scholar, finding and using e-books, subject-specific databases, newspapers and special collections. |
| Evaluating information | Students learn to distinguish between popular and scholarly sources and how to judge information. |
| Citing | Students learn about the principles of academic integrity, plagiarism and citing. |
| Reference management | Students can learn more about the use of EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley in these tutorials. |
| Writing a thesis | This page provides an overview of sources that can help students write a thesis or paper. |
| Special Collections | This tutorial aims to help students discover UBL's Special Collections and get them engaged with primary sources. |
| Collection Guides Special Collections | This tutorial (also available in Dutch) will help students explore and use Collection Guides for their research. |
UBL's information specialists and subject librarians are experts in helping students find, evaluate and use information. To find out more about the workshops we offer, please consult the Flowchart Library Skills.
Teaching librarians customize each information literacy session to the specific needs and culture of your class and students. The following guidelines help ensure we create effective learning experiences:
- Workshops will take place in the room reserved for the course or online (via Teams or Kaltura).
- Contact us at least two weeks before you’d like an instruction session.
- Sessions are free of charge.
- We strongly encourage you to be present for each instruction session. In our experience students are more engaged and have a more meaningful time in a library session when you are present. (Plus, we’ve had faculty tell us how much they learned about library resources and services, too!)
- Sessions are most effective when held during class time.
- Students benefit most when they have an existing class assignment in which they will use the principles we teach.
- Since our instruction is tailored to each individual course and assignment, we will need information about your class to help us determine the best content and instruction approach.
Created by subject librarians and medical information specialist, Subject Guides serve as a starting point for student research. Guides can also be created for specific courses containing recommended resources and digital tools, such as bibliographies, full text databases, and specific reference works. These guides can be linked to from your Brightspace-course.
Alternatively, librarians are also able to set up tailored “Library Resources” pages in Brightspace, with durable links to research resources that can be accessed both on and off campus.
Subject librarians and medical information specialists offer one-on-one research support for students writing their Bachelor- or Masterthesis. These consultations are customized to the research requirements of particular assignments. Consider including our contact information in the course syllabus, along with mention of our research consultation service.
If you want support for yourself or a colleague, make an appointment with your subject librarian or medical information specialist, who will be happy to meet you one-on-one. Librarians can help with issues such as course reserves, avoiding plagiarism and systematic literature reviews.