Services

Information Literacy Instruction

Faculty can request library instruction sessions for their classes. Depending on the needs of the class, class time may be a few minutes for a very brief visit or the whole class hour for active learning. Librarians will work with classroom faculty to schedule the best time for the library instruction session and determine what information literacy skills students need to successfully complete their assignment and the appropriate amount of time for each instruction session.
Library instruction topics may include:

• Research Process:Refining topics
• Search Strategies:Choosing keywords and search methods
• Finding books using library catalog & ebook collections
• Finding articles using online research databases
• Evaluating Information:What are scholarly (research-based) articles
• How to evaluate websites
• Introduction to library resources
• Other topics as requested

Best Practices for Teaching with your Librarian

1. Contact your librarian as soon as possible. Please give us adequate notice to prepare for your class. A week or two is often preferred, but the more time the better.
2. Librarians can cover no more than 2-3 learning outcomes or resources within one library research instruction session.
3. Schedule the session to coincide with the research project. Students will be more engaged in the session and will retain more information.
4. Remember that the research process is changing constantly. It is often safe to assume many students have a limited understanding and experience of the process.
5. Prepare your class for the session to maximize instruction time. For example, do students have and understand the assignment? Are groups for group projects formed in advance? Have students thought or written about their topics beforehand?
6. Plan to be present when a librarian visits your classroom. Your presence and contributions will help us to establish rapport with your students.
7. Participate in the library session. Librarians and students appreciate your perspective and ability to tie the library instruction to the context of the course.
8. Communicate with your librarian if you have a challenging assignment or will be sending students to the library.

Research Guides

We subscribe to LibGuides, a Web 2.0 content management and website publishing system created by SpringShare, to support faculty instruction and student learning. Faculty can request a Research Guide to create an online course guide to help students complete their research needs for that class. Librarians will work with faculty to recommend research sources as well as provide technical expertise (we can build the Research Guide for you with your input or you can build it yourself).

The LibGuide platform allows you to:

• Organize core and relevant resources that your students will need to successfully complete assignments for your class.
• Show RSS and podcast feeds to get the most recent postings from your favorite professional blog and news sites (NPR, CNN, etc.).
• Embed videos from Films on Demand, YouTube, or other educational videos from open sources (Khan Academy, TED Talks, Academic Earth, etc.).
• Link to ebooks, articles, and videos from the library’s online databases.
• Direct students to Kirk Library for research assistance.
• Research Guides can be integrated into your online Canvas classroom.

Purchase Materials

Faculty are highly encouraged to request the purchase of items that are needed to support their courses and programs. Items may include books, DVDs, and CDs. Other special items may also be considered for purchase. All items, once purchased, will be incorporated into Kirk Library for all students, staff, and faculty to use.

Textbooks will not be purchased, though other required and supplementary materials may be purchased following the guidelines of the library’s collection development policy.

Course Reserves

Faculty may place instructional items that are expected to have heavy use by students in a class on Course Reserve in the library. These items are kept in a secured area and will have a shorter borrowing period (e.g. in library use only or overnight only). Course Reserve items may include library-owned materials, textbooks (faculty must provide the copies), special items such as faculty-owned materials (books, CDs, DVDs, rock collections, etc.), or copies of articles or chapter of a book from outside sources (faculty must provide copyright permissions). These items are available only at the Circulation Desk and must be borrowed with a valid photo ID.

Email Hyesoo Albright or call 360-623-8110 for more information or to place items on Course Reserves.

Open Education

The Library encourages the adoption of open education practices, including the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) whenever possible. Talk to your subject librarian about resources and practices for your courses. Ryer Banta is the library's open education lead. In this role he handles advanced open education questions, and initiatives including leading Centralia's Open Education Team.

Check out OPEN Washington, an Open Educational Resources (OER) network. This website is "dedicated to providing easy pathways for faculty to learn, find, use and apply OER."

Creative Commons

Share your work for reuse with Creative Commons licenses. Use the Choose a CC License Tool to help you choose the best license for you.

Why share using an open license? Check out this Creative Commons presentation for an excellent overview.

Copyright

The Kirk Library provides resources and advice for faculty wishing to incorporate copyrighted sources into their classes. We also can visit your class to teach about intellectual property, copyright, creative commons licenses, citations, and academic integrity.

Use the following forms to aid in determining legal use of copyrighted materials:

• Fair Use Checklist
• TEACH Act Checklist