From Confusion to Confidence: Turning Google Users into Library Users

Since the explosion of the Internet on the information scene in the mid-90's, the research environment has become increasingly complex. Put simply, there's more information at hand than ever before and it can be difficult to define information needs, to find information and to critically evaluate the information that is found. As a last resort, or sometimes out of a lack of awareness of library resources, students often turn to a familiar source - like Google - to find information for their papers.

In an effort to steer students to higher quality resources and to foster information literacy on campus, York University librarians gave over 700 course-specific workshops and lectures last year. We have also created a number of online tutorials and guides to help your students navigate the complex scholarly information landscape. These tutorials and guides are highly recommended for first year students in particular, as they provide an excellent introduction to library research basics. However, upper year students and graduate students may benefit from some review as well. To discuss information literacy and how the library can help you to help your students in this regard, please contact one of our library instruction coordinators.

The following is a selective list of York University Libraries' online instructional offerings. For the full list, please see the Libraries' website at http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/Home/ResearchAndInstruction/startresearch.htm.

How to Find Stuff...

In 35 minutes students will get all the basics on how to find scholarly books and academic journal articles on almost any topic. This audio tutorial requires a computer with speakers and RealPlayer. Listen to the How to Find Stuff tutorial.

Library Research Roadmap...

This is a self-guided introduction to bibliographic research methods in the social sciences and humanities. It is aimed primarily at undergraduates and takes about twenty-minutes to complete. There is also an optional quiz feature that you can require your students to take. Take a look at the Roadmap.

Finding Articles Tutorial...

Journal articles provide you with concise, current and specific information on almost any topic you can imagine. This tutorial will teach students how to search a periodical index in order to find articles on their topics. It also takes about twenty minutes to complete. Take a look at the Finding Articles tutorial.

Subject Research Guides...

A research guide is a short list of important resources within a specific discipline. Research Guides attempt to provide researchers with a number of useful starting places (both in print and on the Web). Librarians have created many discipline specific guides; find them at http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/Home/subject-research-guides.jsp.

Finding Theses and Dissertations...

Students in the upper years or in graduate studies often require theses and dissertations for their research. However, many of them will not know what they are and/or how to find them. To help your students learn about these important sources of information, click here.

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