Learning support
Library's Research Skills offer
The Library's Research Skills offer provides a varied programme of skills development teaching and support focussing on finding, evaluating and managing information in an ethical and scholarly way. The Library's team of Academic Librarians can work with you to provide opportunities for students to develop their research skills as part of their programme of study.
We offer a range of in-curriculum teaching and learning support, which can be tailored to your subject, programme or module requirements, with delivery methods including in-person or remote ‘live’ delivery, on demand resources and blended learning options. Each element of the research skills offer supports the development of relevant information literacies and digital capabilities as outlined below:
Discover - Develop search strategies, use discovery tools and databases
- Clarify what information is required to answer a question.
- Identify different information sources in the subject area.
- Locate and select appropriate discovery tools, search engines, databases.
- Develop a search strategy: suggest appropriate keywords and use effective search techniques to find and select relevant information.
- Create search alerts.
Evaluate - Critically assess information, gauge the quality of a resource and judge its value
- Appreciate the need to critically assess information sources
- Appraise a wide range of media to discover experts and their work
- Understand the origin of information sources and how information is published, recognising the quality and value of different information sources over time
- Apply criteria to evaluate a source for accuracy and authority
- Recognise bias and misinformation
- Apply critical thinking techniques to critique evidence, cross-checking to assess validity and credibility
Reference - create citations, acknowledge others' work and use information ethically
- Explain why referencing and citation are important and are essential for academic writing
- Know when a reference is required for all formats of information
- Understand the principles of good academic practice and how to use information ethically
- Cite others' work and ideas and acknowledge third-party sources while respecting data protection and copyright requirements
- Compile accurate reference lists and bibliographies consistent with the citation style required by the School or department
Manage - Organise content and information efficiently and securely
- Apply principles of data management to ensure secure and effective archiving and retrieval of files and datasets
- Save and tag content and information
- Manage searches and alerts
- Manage references using reference management software