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Library + Archives Research Instruction Bookings

To book a library research instruction session, please contact a librarian by email. You can find your faculty liaison librarian here. Please include:

  • course name/number
  • date and time of the class
  • type of experience you are looking for (i.e. in-class research session, library tour, artists’ book presentation, archives instruction, information literacy, collaborative learning activity)
  • location (online, in-library or classroom)
  • accessibility requirements.

A minimum of one week's notice is required to guarantee availability and allow time for preparation, though shorter notice requests will be accommodated when possible.

Online Research Instruction

Librarians can provide video presentations and online research guides that you can embed in your Moodle course. The presentations can be tailored to a course assignment or broader research theme, and will focus on how to search, access, and evaluate resources from the library’s digital collections.

Library Research Instruction

Librarians can design and teach classroom-based research instruction sessions across the curriculum. Each session usually lasts 1 hour and is tailored specifically to a classroom assignment or broader research theme. This type of instruction will include a demonstration of library research processes, use active learning techniques, and facilitate discussion to urge students to consider the social, political, and economic forces involved in the creation, distribution and use of information.

Library Orientation and Tour

The librarians offer regular tours to new faculty and students throughout the year. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce you and your students to the library collections, services and equipment.

Artists' Books Visits

Arrange a class visit with a librarian to interact with our Artists’ Books Collection. Integrate this amazing teaching collection into your curriculum whether it be communication design, print-making, curatorial practice, social practice, painting, photography, creative writing or design. It is the perfect opportunity to practice teaching with objects and to initiate an engaging interdisciplinary discussion out of the classroom into the library.

Collaborative Learning Activities

The librarians are interested in pursuing cross-disciplinary collaboration with faculty in areas of research concerning the book, experimental archives, social practice, digital resource management, artists’ publications, media archiving, bibliography and digital images. We are also engaged in compiling class reading lists, facilitating exhibitions in the library, working with co-op students, participating in class-critiques and mentoring students who have an interest in libraries.

Information Literacy Talks

Librarians can provide 10-30 minute guest lectures on topics related to information literacy. Some examples are Information Bias and Fake News, Digital Privacy, and Commoditization of Information.

Archives Instruction

Archives instruction can introduce and expand upon knowledge of archival concepts, theory and research. The session can be a general introduction or structured around specific assignments/curriculum. Students can work directly with archival materials from the ECU Archives or digital collections from other repositories. Students will learn how to find, access and contextualize primary and historical sources.

HUMN100 Lecture: Library Orientation (week 2)

In this 15 minute lecture, students learn about library services, spaces and collections. They are informed about borrowing from our library, and also from other libraries. They are introduced to the library team and to information and visual literacy concepts.

HUMN100 Lecture: Information Bias (approx. week 10)

In this 15 minute lecture, students will learn about various types of information and cognitive biases, including confirmation bias, and how they can effect scholarly research. They are introduced to mis- and disinfomation concepts. This lecture also talks about the ways that generative AI complicates the information landscape and how students can use critical thinking when looking at information.

HUMN100 Seminar Activity: Library Discovery Game (30 minutes, in-library session)

HUMN100 seminar leaders can book a library discovery activity for their class. This is a scavenger hunt in which students discover various library services and collections over the course of 30 minutes. The student pair that completes the activity first will win a prize (which may include print credit or a new book).

FNDT108 / FNDT165 Workshop: Introducing Library Collections and Research Basics through Collaborative Drawing (60 minutes, in-library session)

In this activity, students are asked to create collaborative drawings, do library catalogue searches based on keyword creation, and use library materials to inform their drawings. Students will learn how to search the library catalogue and how to find books in the library. They will be asked to consider how the activity relates to the non-linear and conversational qualities of conducting research.

HUMN101 Lecture: Introduction to Academic Research (week 3)

This lecture covers the basics of what to expect with academic research, how to get started in the process, where to search, evaluating and citing resources. There is an explanation the peer review process and how to access research help through the library. This lecture is intended to support the HUMN101 exhibition review assignment.

HUMN101 Lecture: Introduction to Creative Research (approx. week 9)

This lecture is about using library resources to support and contextualize creative practice. It introduces students to the idea that their creative practice is also considered research and the library has discipline-specific resources such as image, sound, and material databases.

HUMN101 Seminar Workshop: Getting started with Research (60 minutes, in-class or in-library)

This workshop includes hands-on activities that introduce concept mapping as a tool to get started with research, keyword development, searching the library catalogue, and understanding the pros and cons of different information sources.

    If you are interested in booking any of the activity or workshop sessions, please contact Hillary Webb.