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The Research & Instructional Design team’s librarians work with faculty to help students to develop a deep understanding and proficiency with discovering, contextualizing, and sharing information for a scholarly audience.

Areas of Focus

Information Discovery

James Library Reading Room, 1954
James Library Reading Room, Hamilton College, 1954.

Librarians work with students to match their information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools. This is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of sources and the flexibility to pursue alternate approaches as new understanding emerges. We provide students with an overview of the research process with the aim of helping them focus and refine topics for further exploration. In particular, we work with students to develop strategies for searching the millions of items available to them through the library catalog, the library’s nearly two-hundred specialized databases, and the open web.

 

Information Evaluation and Contextualization

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Francis Barlow, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, 1687. Wikimedia Commons

Librarians work with students to match their information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools. This is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of sources and the flexibility to pursue alternate approaches as new understanding emerges. We provide students with an overview of the research process with the aim of helping them focus and refine topics for further exploration. In particular, we work with students to develop strategies for searching the millions of items available to them through the library catalog, the library’s nearly two-hundred specialized databases, and the open web.

 

Data Analysis

Periodic Table
Social Network Analysis Visualization. Wikimedia Commons

Librarians assist students with discovering, inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. We collaborate with faculty in designing and supporting course assignments that develop their students' data analysis capabilities using Stata, R, and other software. We support students through one-on-one consultations, workshops, and asynchronous learning modules. We also consult with students and faculty on their research projects.

 

Data Collection and Organization

Periodic Table
Periodic table. PAVM/Pixabay

Librarians help develop students’ understanding of how the collection and organization of information affects its discoverability. We also work with students on collection-related projects ranging from the creation of metadata records for class assignments to organizing their own research using RefWorks.

 

Citation and Scholarly Communication

Six Scholars Sitting Around a Table
Six Scholars Sitting Around a Table by Hans Burgkmair (1473–1531). Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scholarly communication is a term used by librarians to describe the ways scholars create and share their work with others. It is often characterized as a lifecycle that encompasses the creation, publication, dissemination and discovery of scholarly research. We use teaching the basics of citing sources as an opportunity to engage students in a broader discussion of issues like peer review, publishing practices, and the nature of scholarly conversation in various disciplines.

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Research & Instructional Design Staff

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