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Faculty Support

Instruction & Classroom Support

Library Instruction Services

Library instruction facilitates students' engagement in creative and critical inquiry about their research topics using high-quality research and information resources.

Request Library Instruction

Librarians provide instruction for on-campus courses by engaging students in active learning focused on instructor driven research outcomes. Librarians are open to meet with professors before the scheduled library session to discuss and help design a research assignment that meets student-learning outcomes. Instructors are responsible for accompanying classes during research instruction. Without the presence of the instructor to clarify context and field questions, studies show that research instruction is less effective. Contact the Library Director at kjones@liashapiro.com to request instruction and set up a meeting to discuss your instructional goals at least two weeks before the date you plan to bring your class to the library.

Integrate Research Skills into Your Course

What research skills will students need to be successful in your course? Your librarian will collaborate in reviewing course assignments to identify and incorporate scaffolded research and critical thinking skills into your class. Contact the Library Director at kjones@liashapiro.com 

Designing Research Assignments

  • Effective research assignments help your students to develop an appropriate topic, think critically about information resources, and responsibly utilize resources. The Instruction Librarian can collaborate with you to:

    • Think through an assignment from a research skills perspective
    • Verify if resources needed to complete the assignment are available through the library
    • Arrange research support for your students in the library through both class instruction and one-on-one assistance.
    Visit the library's Information Literacy Research Guide for access to hundreds of ready-made research lesson plans or contact the Library Director at kjones@liashapiro.com 

Resource Guides & Tutorials for Instructional Support

Resource guides and tutorials support students in discovering discipline-related resources and learning research skills and concepts. Librarians work with instructors to build guides and tutorials tailored to specific courses and link them directly to Brightspace.

 

Library Learning Outcomes and Information Literacy Framework

Louisburg College Librarians develop Library Learning Outcome instruction based on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

Introduction

The Cecil W. Robbins Library at Louisburg College is committed to supporting student learning through its instruction program. Students learn about information and the research process at the library in many ways. They may interact with a reference librarian, attend a library instruction session, arrange a consultation with a librarian, visit the library, or visit the website. The librarians at Louisburg College have developed learning outcomes for students that will inform our instruction regardless of the mode.

While library instruction in any specific discipline will be unlikely to cover all of these outcomes, they do represent the breadth of instructional activities provided by the library to students across the curriculum.

Strategize

Definition: Students will develop the dispositions and skills to develop a realistic topic and plan for research, determine what types of sources they should seek, develop an effective search strategy, and ask for help when needed.

Rationale: To find the information they need students must first be able to clearly define their information need and understand what resources are available to them.

Specific Outcomes:
    • Identify library services and the availability of resources to develop a realistic overall plan for research.
    • Use general information resources to increase familiarity with the topic and vocabulary of the discipline.
    • Define the research topic question or thesis to achieve a manageable focus appropriate to the assignment criteria, available resources, and evidence needed to support the thesis.
    • Identify keywords, synonyms, and related terms to search for information resources flexibly.
    • Identify the range of information source types available such as peer-reviewed journals, newspaper articles, books, reference sources, etc. Identify their distinguishing characteristics and intended audiences to select which are appropriate.
    • Identify the features and content of different research tools such as databases, catalogs, and websites to search those most appropriate to the information need.
    • Develop a strategy for persisting in information seeking despite challenges to overcome potential roadblocks in research.

Gather and Organize

Definition: Students will effectively search information resources, modify their search or topic when necessary, seek out sources from diverse perspectives, and record what they have found.

Rationale:  In an era of information abundance, students need to be able to zero in on the appropriate sources and target their search effectively in to find the most relevant information. It is also important that they seek out diverse points of view to broaden their perspectives.

Specific Outcomes:

    • Identify and use search language, controlled vocabulary, or search features appropriate
      to the research tool to retrieve relevant results.
    • Narrow, broaden, or modify their search, research topic, question, or thesis based on
      initial search results.
    • Seek resources from diverse perspectives to broaden their frame of reference.
    • Select appropriate means for recording or saving relevant sources to retrieve
      them when needed.
    • Observe and use pointers to additional information such as authors, footnotes, bibliographies, controlled vocabulary, etc. to locate additional sources.
    • Devise a system for keeping up with the latest research on their topic(s).

Analyze and Evaluate

Definition: Students will effectively search information resources, modify their search or topic when necessary, seek out sources from diverse perspectives, and record what they have found.

Rationale:  In an era of information abundance, students need to be able to zero in on the appropriate sources and target their search effectively to find the most relevant information. It is also important that they seek out diverse points of view to broaden their perspectives.

Specific Outcomes:

    • Identify and use search language, controlled vocabulary, or search features appropriate
      to the research tool to retrieve relevant results.
    • Narrow, broaden, or modify their search, research topic, question, or thesis based on
      initial search results.
    • Seek resources from diverse perspectives to broaden their frame of reference.
    • Select appropriate means for recording or saving relevant sources to retrieve
      them when needed.
    • Observe and use pointers to additional information such as authors, footnotes, bibliographies, controlled vocabulary, etc. to locate additional sources.
    • Devise a system for keeping up with the latest research on their topic(s).

Use Information Ethically

Definition: Students will demonstrate ethical behavior through their use and creation of
information.

Rationale: Cognizance of one’s ethical responsibility to others is critical to developing social responsibility.

Specific Outcomes:

  • Recognize issues related to privacy, ethics, intellectual property, and copyright to respect the rights of others, comply with laws and contracts, or safeguard personal information.
  • Provide attribution using an appropriate documentation style when quoting or
    paraphrasing the ideas of others to acknowledge the research sources used.
  • Apply the author’s intended meaning when quoting or paraphrasing to
    accurately represent content.

Explore hundreds of lesson plans in our Information Literacy Resource Guide 

Linking Library Resources in Brightspace

Individual databases, resource guides, eBooks, films, and articles link directly to Brightspace.

Linking NCLive Databases in Brightspace

Direct links to subject-specific databases can be found here.  

Linking Resource Guides in Brightspace

Each Resource Guide inserts as a link into Brightspace using the user-friendly link found in the address bar within each guide. For example, http://louisburg.libguides.com/ACA opens directly into the ACA Resource Guide.

Linking (sharing) Articles, eBooks, and Films on Demand in Brightspace

Permalink

Databases will use a paperclip icon to indicate that a permalink option is available. Permalinks are located inside an article. Permalinks to eBooks and films are located in each book or film under “share”. By clicking on this symbol, or one similar, a pop-up window will open that contains the link. Copy and paste this link into Brightspace rather than the URL in the address bar. The “embed” option is for embedding a link into a distinct presentation or document. Use share not embed to link an article, eBook, or film to the Brightspace platform.

DOI

A Digital Object Identifier — DOI — is a persistent unique identification of an object of any type. These will look like a series of numbers with some punctuation breaking up the various sets (e.g. doi:10.1000/182).

Borrowing & Requests

Check Out Books

Louisburg College faculty and staff may check books out of the library using a Louisburg College ID card. They can check books out for a month and there is no limit to the number of books or renewals. Renew books at the Circulation Desk or call the library to renew over the phone.

Overdue fines are 10 cents per day per book.

Overdue Notices

The library's online circulation system automatically generates overdue notices to remind patrons of material not returned by the due date. Borrowers receive subsequent reminder notices to return overdue material mostly via email.

Circulating Books

Robbins library arranges books according to the Library of Congress classification system and guides are posted on the ends of the shelves in the library.

Interlibrary Loan Request

If the library does not own the book you need, it can order it for you through its interlibrary loan service. To request an interlibrary loan, email the title, author, and your contact information to nwhite@liashapiro.com.

Patrons can also request interlibrary loan materials in person at the Circulation Desk in the library by completing a request form. Please ask a librarian for assistance. 

Most interlibrary loan items arrive within two weeks. The library will notify patrons by e-mail when the items arrive and are available for pick-up at the Circulation Desk in the library.

Reserve the Computer Lab

There is a Google calendar for reserving the use of the library computer lab to aid in faculty planning and to avoid conflict in the use of the space. Please check the calendar for availability, and then email the date and time of your request to imikos@liashapiro.com.

One-on-One Reference Request

Librarians also offer one-on-one instruction and support to both faculty and students in the use of digital and information-seeking tools.

eBooks

Library staff offer instruction on ways to navigate the eBook catalog, create your bookshelf, assign, distribute, cite, and link to eBooks on multiple platforms.

Databases

Librarians can help you learn to navigate any of the hundreds of NCLive databases.

Citation Styles

Library staff can instruct and aid with multiple citation styles so instructors may draft a lesson to teach students how to use the appropriate citation styles.

RESEARCH 

A librarian can assist you with research for scholarship and writing in your field or with researching materials for a specific class or topic. Contact a librarian to make an appointment.

Research 

A librarian can assist you with research for scholarship and writing in your field or with researching materials for a specific class or topic. Contact a librarian to make an appointment.

Use of Library Spaces

The library offers three study zones for student and faculty use:

The Learning Commons is located on the ground floor of the library and permits collaboration and talking. Instructors can bring a class into the open library to work on research without submitting a request. For librarian assistance with your class, please complete an Instruction Request Form. Please ask students to self-monitor the volume of their voices out of respect for other groups and individuals who are also studying in the library.

The Quiet Study area is located on the second floor or mezzanine of the library. This space is not for collaborative study but is reserved for individual computer use and personal study. If you bring a class upstairs into the Quiet Study area for research, please be mindful of other students and refrain from speaking loudly. Ask students not to socialize on the second floor. The Learning Commons downstairs or the computer lab are the best places for verbal instruction and students to work aloud together.

The Quiet Room is a comfortable space reserved for silent study and reading. It is located on the second floor of the library in the back right corner encased in glass to block ambient noise. Wireless internet is available in the Quiet Room for use on tablets, laptops, and mobile devices. There are no library computers in this space. Please use the Quiet Study area or the Learning Commons to access library computers.