| Library Survival Skills
Taught Here! - As you visit the Pollak Library this
semester, cast an eye towards our new colorful banners surrounding the
perimeter of the north wing of the Library. It is our hope that these “Library
Survival Skills” banners will not only add a bright splash of color,
but also will pique the curiosity of students, faculty, and staff alike.
The
“Library Survival Skills” banners highlight our ongoing commitment to
information literacy. Through our multi-faceted library instruction
program we strive to ensure that our CSUF students have the
information-seeking and research skills to succeed in the expanding
digital world.
The banners are a very
visible way of announcing that Library Survival Skills workshops
will once again be offered this spring semester. Students have several
options. If they are new to campus or the Library, they can attend an
introductory workshop and learn the basics: effective use and searching of
the Library website, OPAC, and CSULink. Access and hands-on searching of
the comprehensive Expanded Academic ASAP Index will also be
covered, as well as printing, downloading, and e-mail capabilities.
Students can then move
on to “Part II---More Survival Skills.” Presentations in this workshop
will cover more advanced topics in library research: choosing appropriate
databases for a subject field, making the best use of database help
screens, "hidden" features of the Pollak Library web site,
choosing and using web subject directories, etc.
For our entrepreneurial
business students, a series of Business Library Survival Skills workshops
will also be offered. During these sessions, useful resources such as Dow-Jones
Interactive, ABI Inform, and Lexis-Nexis will be
covered.
All workshops are free
and no registration is required. To obtain more information on dates and
times, visit our Electronic Workshop Schedule at http://www.library.fullerton.edu/erworkshop.htm.
If you are you a faculty member, you can request a special library
instruction session for your class or classes by calling the Library
Instruction office at 3041, or by filling out and submitting an online
request form at http://www.library.fullerton.edu/ipfacreq.htm.
Because this program is so
popular, requests for specific library instruction sessions must be made
at least two weeks in advance.
During these
faculty-requested sessions, students are actively involved in
understanding the process of identifying, retrieving, evaluating, and
using information in both traditional and electronic resources that will
help them complete research assignments. The distinction between popular
and scholarly materials, primary and secondary sources, as well as
critical evaluation of web resources may also be covered. Students and
faculty consistently tell us that they find these sessions invaluable.
Library faculty also
are available for one-on-one in-depth research consultations.
Research Consultation appointment forms are available at the Reference
Desk, or you may complete the form online by visiting the Research
Assistance Appointment Form page at http://www.library.fullerton.edu/ipresearch.htm.
It is our hope that
these instructional opportunities offered by the Pollak Library will not
only prepare students for their immediate curricular activities, but also
help them to be effective lifelong users of information in its
multifarious formats.
Suellen Cox
Library Instruction Coordinator |
