Library Day: The Details

What is Library Day?
What will students do?
Requesting Library Day
Preparing for Library Day
Contact Us

• Library Day is an opportunity for students to become familiar with how to locate and evaluate information, at a large academic library, in the context of ENGL 101 assignments.

• Library Day sessions take place during a regular ENGL 101 class period. They are taught in McKeldin Library computer instruction labs and scheduled at the request of ENGL 101 instructors.

• Library Day is taught by librarians and a team of graduate student Special Lecturers.

• The sessions are designed to be active hands-on learning experiences. Students use lab computers as Special Lecturers guide them in the exploration and use of library resources relevant to ENGL 101 assignments.

• See testimonials about Library Day.

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During a Library Day session, students will:

• Be introduced to the Libraries' home page, to specialized resources (i.e., databases), and to a page customized for the research needs of ENGL 101 students.

• Search the Libraries' Catalog and learn how to interpret its records.

• Deconstruct a research question into keywords, then create effective search strategies.

• Explore Research Port and learn what kinds of sources are available, particularly CQ Researcher, to locate background information on their topic. Academic Search Premier, to find scholarly articles. LexisNexis Academic, to find newspaper articles and editorials.

• Learn how to differentiate between popular and scholarly sources, and the importance of doing so.

• Understand why citing the work of others is important.

• Find out where to get additional research help.

• Leave the lab with at least one source for their research paper.

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ENGL 101 instructors, please use this request form. Submission deadlines apply.

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• The most effective and meaningful Library Day sessions are the ones where ENGL 101 instructors have prepared students by having them come to the session with concrete topics (or firm ideas) to research.

• Consider assigning 1 or more of the 9 Research and Library Skills Exercises as supplements to Library Day. These exercises are designed to help students gain a clear understanding of several key information literacy concepts prior to attending Library Day, or can be used to help students review what they learned in this workshop.

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Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions?

Contact User Education Services, Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Reach us by phone at 301-405-9120 or by email at libues[at]umd.edu.

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