Research & Instruction
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Course-related library instruction
Students may be comfortable using Google and Wikipedia to find information but often don’t know where to find evidence to support college-level projects. Librarians can help students go beyond Google for their information needs. CLUE librarians can help students learn to find information, understand how it's produced and valued, and use it ethically to create new knowledge. These abilities are needed not only to successfully complete research projects but to prepare students for life after graduation. Based on the goals of your assignment, an instruction librarian will customize a library workshop for students to learn about the research process, to use subject-specific databases, to locate scholarly sources, and/or to properly cite sources.Request a library instruction session to be customized for your class or classes
Important information about library instruction sessions:
- Most sessions take place in room 308 or 309 located on the 3rd floor of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. Room 308 is room that seats 30 students and is wireless enabled. Room 309 is a hands-on classroom with 20 desktop computers and seating for up to 30 people. We can also visit your classroom or lab. We may ask you to ask your students to bring their laptops to class on the day of the session.
- We appreciate one week, but prefer two weeks, advance notice to prepare for the session and make sure there is a room available in the library.
- The timing of the library session is critical. Students benefit most from a library session when they are aware of the assignment, have chosen a topic and are ready to begin locating information.
- Your involvement in the library session is key to your students’ success. Students will want to ask questions about the assignment and will benefit from hearing about your experiences with library research. If you request a session that you are not able to attend, the librarian will likely ask you to reschedule the library session.
- Librarians will include active learning exercises to engage students in critical thinking skills as well as information literacy skills. Students who know about the research assignment and have a topic or research question in mind can begin gathering research information during class.
Course Guide Creation
Librarians will create an online guide to accompany a research assignment. Guides typically include relevant databases, library research tips, and contact information to make a research appointment. It is not necessary to bring your class to the library to have a course guide created for your assignment.Assignment Creation Assistance
Librarians are available to review assignments or assist in the creation of research or information literacy assignments which provide a positive learning experience for students. We can also help faculty to construct assignments that challenge students to go beyond Wikipedia as supporting evidence.The Library Instruction Program document outlines the library's approach to information literacy.
Contact Sean Knowlton for more information.
Search our FAQ for common questions about library services.
Follow step-by-step tutorials for basic searching assistance.
Use our Research Guides and Course Guides created by subject librarians to find databases, reference sources, research websites, and other key information sources.
Get help at any stage of the research process.
Stop by the Research Help Desk on the 1st floor in the Learning Commons of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.
- Fall 2016 Hours (calendar of hours) - Hours may vary.
- Monday–Thursday 9 am - 9 pm
- Friday 9 am - 5 pm
- Saturday 12 noon - 5 pm
- Sunday 12 noon - 9 pm
Call the Research Help Desk at (504) 865-5606.
Email the Research Help Desk at libref@tulane.edu.
Request a Research Appointment for a personalized, in-depth meeting to discuss your research needs.
Chat with the Research Help Desk.
The Center for Library User Education at the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library offers workshops on library research skills for Tulane students, faculty, and staff. Available workshops and their descriptions are below. Workshops may also be arranged upon request for one participant or for multiple participants who request the same day and time.
Request a Research Appointment if you want to meet privately with a librarian about your research project.
Faculty members should use the Library Instruction Request Form to schedule a course-related workshop for a class. Librarians will tailor a workshop around your assignment and goals.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Click on workshop name to expand the description or view in a calendar.
Sexual Violence Research (1 hour)
This workshop is useful for students, leaders, and administrators interested in locating current evidence-based resources and data to support intervention and prevention strategies and programming on the topic of sexual violence on University campuses.
Request the Sexual Violence Research workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sep. 20 |
Tuesday |
3 pm to 4 pm |
308 |
Register |
Strategic Reading for Research (1 hour)
Academic research involves a lot of reading and can be a challenge, especially when you have a million other things to do. Luckily, you can read strategically to help identify significant points, find relationships across readings, and see how each reading relates to your research project. In the end, reading strategically will also make your writing process easier. Students who attend this workshop will learn how to read strategically, including how to annotate readings, how to track relationships across readings, and how to mark out relationships to your own research project.
Request the Strategic Reading for Research workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sept. 26 |
Monday |
10 am to 11 am |
602 |
Register |
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Oct. 6 |
Thursday |
1 pm to 2 pm |
602 |
Register |
Choosing a Citation Management Tool (1 hour)
EasyBib, Zotero, RefWorks, EndNote Web, and Mendeley can help you to store the citations you find during your research. They all make it easy to format a works cited list. Which is best for you? This workshop will make you aware of your options and help you decide what tool is best for you. Registration is encouraged.
Request the Citation Management Tools workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sep. 14 |
Wednesday |
11 am to 12 noon |
308 |
Register |
|
Sep. 27 |
Tuesday |
1 pm to 2 pm |
308 |
Register |
|
Oct. 6 |
Thursday | 3 pm to 4 pm | 308 | Register |
Introduction to Endnote Basic Citation Management Tool (1 hour) By Request
EndNote Basic citation management software allows you to create your own personal library of references to books, articles and documents. References can include citation information (author, title, publisher, etc.) as well as annotations and graphics. EndNote Basic then works with Microsoft Word and other word processors to automatically add references to your paper and format your bibliography in the proper style (MLA, APA, Chicago, APSA etc.).
Introduction to Mendeley Citation Management Tool (1 hour) By Request
Mendeley is a desktop and web-based citation management tool. With it you can organize research materials, annotate PDFs, and create citations. You can also network with others researching in your discipline who are using Mendeley.
Introduction to RefWorks Citation Management Tool (1 hour) By Request
Refworks is an online tool that helps you conduct research and compose research papers. RefWorks functions with Microsoft Word and other word processors to create footnotes, citations and a bibliography for your paper, formatted into the correct style (MLA, APA, Chicago Style, etc.). In addition, RefWorks allows you to save and organize your citations as you do research. Each reference can be extensively annotated to make the writing process easier. RefWorks works with our existing library database subscriptions to make a seamless transition between researching and writing.
The functionality of RefWorks is similar to that of the EndNote software. Unlike EndNote Web, RefWorks is available to you after you graduate with an alumni account.
Introduction to Zotero Citation Management Tool (1 hour) By Request
Zotero is a free tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. This workshop will introduce the basics of Zotero: installation, adding sources to your library, organizing and managing, creating a bibliography in the citation style of your choice. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own laptops so that they can download and begin building their own library.
Introduction to Text Analysis (1 hour)
Text analysis offers a powerful data-gathering process to extract meaning from digital text. In this workshop, we will go hands on to engage in computer-assisted text analysis using an Open Access web-based tool called Voyant. We will practice finding digital sources, cleaning text, uploading and visualizing our results. Registration is encouraged.
Request the Introduction to Text Analysis workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Oct. 19 |
Wednesday | 3 pm to 4 pm | 308 | Register |
|
Nov. 10 |
Thursday | 2 pm to 3 pm | 308 | Register |
Measuring your Impact: Impact Factors and Altmetrics (1 hour)
This workshop will help you measure and assess your impact in the scholarly community and beyond. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, Publish or Perish, and Altmetric Bookmarklet we will explore the different ways to conduct a citation analysis, locate your h-index, and alternative metrics (twitter, blogs, social networking). Although this workshop is geared towards published scholars (formal publications or blogs), it is also useful for students looking to find collaborators, supervisors, or career opportunities.
Request the Measuring your Impact: Impact Factors and Altmetrics workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sep. 16 |
Friday | 9:30 am to 10:30 am | 308 | Register |
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Oct. 3 |
Monday | 4 pm to 5 pm | 308 | Register |
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Nov. 8 |
Tuesday | 12 noon to 1 pm | 308 | Register |
Introduction to Patents (1 hour)
Patents can be useful tools for commercializing an invention as well as learning about a specific technology market. Unfortunately, the patents themselves can be difficult to read and understand, limiting their value as primary source of research. In this workshop you will learn how to: 1) search for a patent, 2) read a patent, 3) use the information from a patent in your research. Presented in collaboration with Tulane’s Office of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property.
Request the Introduction to Patents workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sep. 29 |
Thursday | 12 noon to 1:15 pm | 308 | Register |
Using the Data Management Plan Tool (45 minutes)
This workshop is for all scholars interested in meeting the data management requirements of federal funding agencies. The workshop will explore the data management requirements scholars currently face and how to utilize the Data Management Plan Tool (DMPTool) to help address them. The workshop will also offer step-by-step demonstrations of how to use the DMPTool to ensure your grant proposal addresses federal guidelines. In addition, the workshop will explore some of the other tools and resources offered through Tulane University to facilitate your research data needs.
Request the Data Management Plan Tool workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Oct. 7 |
Friday | 10 am to 11 am | 308 | Register |
Meeting NIH Public Access Policy Requirements (1 hour)
The NIH public access policy requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication. Failure to comply can result in the withholding of current and future funding.
In this workshop we will provide an overview of:
- NIH Public access policy requirements
- Steps necessary/required for compliance (including PMCID)
- DMPTool, which address the data management component of public access polices
Don’t let your funding be put in jeopardy!
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Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Oct. 17 |
Monday |
10 am to 11 am |
308 |
Register |
|
Nov. 16 |
Wednesday |
12 noon to 1 pm |
308 |
Register |
Open Access and Open Educational Resources (1 hour)
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Request the Open Access and Open Educational Resources workshop if these dates do not fit your schedule.
|
Date |
Day |
Time |
Room |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Oct. 24 |
Monday |
4 pm to 5 pm |
308 |
Register |
Build a Custom Workshop
Build a workshop from the options below.
Request a custom workshop
Navigating the library website
• Learn how to find the best resources and services for your research.
Topics may include subject-specific guides, key databases, research services available.
Catalog searching
• Learn how to locate books, journal titles, music, video, and more in the library catalog.
Topics may include devising a search strategy, using subject headings, and advanced features of the catalog interface.
Borrowing & renewing books
• Learn the ins and outs of borrowing and renewing books from Howard-Tilton, other New Orleans libraries, and libraries around the country.
Topics may include managing your checked out books, using Inter-Library Loan to get books from other libraries, and borrowing privileges as other university libraries in New Orleans and Louisiana.
Selecting the right databases
• Learn how to find the best database for your research need.
Topics may include disciplinary and interdisciplinary databases, databases with archival and primary source material, and simultaneously searching multiple relevant databases.
Selecting the best sources
• Learn how to choose the right information sources for your research needs.
Topics may include evaluating search results on the Internet and in the library’s collections to find the most appropriate items and using search tool features to filter or limit results quickly.
Formulating search strategies
• Learn how to turn your research question into an efficient search strategy.
Topics may include extracting keywords from a research question, locating the specialized vocabulary of relevant disciplines and specific search tools, and using discovered items to find additional sources.
Better searching through technology
• Learn how to take advantage of the latest technology to assist your research.
Topics may include accessing subscription resources from off-campus, getting to full-text articles from searches in subscription databases or Google Scholar, and managing research materials through e-mail, personal accounts, and external applications.
Research topic development
• Learn how to find scholarly background information on a topic, and how to refine a topic idea into a workable research question.
Topics may include locating specialized encyclopedias and reference materials, broadening or narrowing the scope of a topic idea, and mapping the relationship among related concepts.
Critical note-taking
• Learn note-taking strategies to keep your research organized and manageable throughout the project.
Topics may include note taking techniques, tracking related concepts across resources, and managing direct quotes and paraphrasing for proper citation.
Locating resources not at Tulane
• Learn how to expand your research beyond the collections held at Tulane.
Topics may include searching for books and other materials at libraries throughout the United States and beyond, using inter-library loan and other borrowing privileges at non-Tulane libraries, and effective Internet searching to find high-quality open-access materials online.
Citation management
• Learn how to manage your research and quickly create citations and bibliographies with a range of subscription and open-source tools.
Topics may include the value of using citation management tools, choosing the tools that’s best for you, and introductions to selected tools including EasyBib, EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero as well as tutorials and help documents to guide you through the software specifics.
Cited reference searching
• Learn how to find track the scholarly impact of a work and follow the debate on important topics through the literature.
Topics may include cited reference searching in subject databases, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.
Data management
• Learn how to describe and manage your research data from grant proposal writing to long-term storage.
Topics may include writing a data management plan for a grant proposal, organizing data for efficient use and storage, and keeping data safe over the long term.
Getting ready to publish
• Learn how to find the best journals for your next published article and know your rights as an author.
Topics may include finding highly ranked journals in your field, locating journals’ copyright policies, and how to protect your intellectual property rights as an author.
Archival research
• Learn the basics of archival research to take full advantage of Tulane’s special collections and archives in New Orleans and around the world.
Topics may include the organization of archival materials for efficient searching, what to know before visiting an archive, and strategies to manage your research findings.
Suggested combinations:
Beginners' Blueprint: Research topic development, basic search strategies, full-text and proxy access
Honors Thesis: Critical note taking, citation management, advanced search strategies
Dissertation Delight: Advanced search strategies, cited reference searching, citation management, locating resources not at Tulane
