You trust us for print and online materials that support your research and teaching. But you might not know we help in the classroom too. Students at all levels struggle with research. Whether you’re teaching a first-year seminar, a Celtic Studies class, or a graduate course in theology, we’ll work with you on a library session to help students meet your learning objectives.
Tailored Help
Our librarians plan workshops to meet your needs. We can teach your students in person or online; welcome you at the library or pay you a visit; offer a 10-minute overview or an in-depth workshop. We’re flexible. Here are some common topics.
What We Teach
- Database & Catalogue Searching
- Narrowing a Topic and Forming a Research Question
- Appraising What You Find
- Distinguishing among Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
- Bibliographies & Citations
- Keywords, Boolean Terms, and Subject Headings
- Literature Reviews
- Reading a Scholarly Article
Guides & Assignments
Library Guides in Quercus
Since you and your students are often in Quercus, we’re happy to meet you there. Kelly librarians can customize library resource guides specially for your course and embed the guide for your students on your Quercus course site.
Assignment Support
We can work with you on choosing question prompts and reviewing assignments to make sure your students have the materials and skills they need to get them done.
Credo
Based on a constructivist teaching approach adapted from the Association of Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, our library instruction program assists undergraduate and graduate students in mastering skills and concepts they need for course assignments, especially those in the St. Michael’s College programs and the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology. Library instruction — known in the library world as information literacy — is one of Arts & Science’s five undergraduate competencies for “learning and applying knowledge” in Honours Bachelor degrees at the University of Toronto.
Our program follows 4 principles:
- Research matters: Research matters because it helps you distinguish between credible sources and doubtful ones. In doing so it lends credence not only to the idea facts, expertise, and reality itself deserve respect, but the conviction humanity’s common future depends upon it.
- Research is iterative: By doing again and again, students learn physical and mental habits, but they also gain intellectual acuity by surmounting increasingly challenging assignments and gradually asking more complex questions.
- Scholarship is conversation: By researching, students take part in thought-provoking discussions about what is important (e.g. related to historical events and people; philosophy and theology; building bridges; curing diseases; how people interact and behave; plants and animals; literature, etc.). They encounter different views and perspectives to help develop their own.
- We believe in our students: Learning is supposed to be difficult, and university assignments are generally more challenging than high school ones. But intelligence is independent of knowledge. Undergraduates are intellectually capable, and they already know a great deal, either from experience or from schoolwork or both. We help them tap their existing bank of smarts, experience, and knowledge in understanding and completing rigorous assignments.
Whom We Teach
The Kelly Library’s instruction program chiefly supports the St. Michael’s College Programs and the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology, but we also work with faculty in adjoining language departments as well as the Toronto School of Theology, the Centre for Medieval Studies, and the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies.
Contact Us
Connect with your Subject Librarian to discuss instruction options, ask for books you need, or request a library guide for your Quercus course site.