Teaching Support

Trent University Library offers a range of support services for faculty and instructors.

As information specialists, we are well positioned to teach students about finding and using information, organizing resources, thinking critically, and researching ethically. When librarians work together with instructors to include these skills in their courses, it enhances the educational experience and better prepares students for the challenges of academic research.

We highly recommend taking a moment to send us a message at library@trentu.ca to see how we can support your course.

The Trent University Library offers a Library Research Skills Course designed to teach students the information literacy and research skills they need for success, including developing a research question, types of research resources (academic vs. popular, etc.), strategically searching for resources using Omni (Trent’s library search tool), and critical evaluation of sources.

This course is available asynchronously on Blackboard. Please reach out to the Library (library@trentu.ca) to request enrollment for students in your course. The course is available throughout each semester, and you may select the due date by which you want students to complete the course.

The course is currently made up of three modules, each of which takes between 20-40 minutes to complete. Students complete an untimed, open-book, multiple-choice quiz at the end of each module. Students will receive a Certificate of Completion upon completing all three quizzes with grades of 100%. Students can retake quizzes as many times as necessary until they achieve 100%.

We encourage instructors to integrate this course as part of your syllabus and final grade to encourage students to complete the course and hone their research and information literacy skills.

Librarians offer in-class information literacy and research workshops. Most workshops range from 30 to 90 minutes and can be tailored to specific research-based assignments and skills needed in your course.

Workshop topics may include but are not limited to:

  • developing a research question/topic
  • keyword searching in Omni (Trent’s library search tool)
  • strategic searching in subject-specific databases
  • critically evaluating research sources
  • how to use citation management software

Our goal is to promote information literacy, focusing on teaching students to effectively use and critically assess information. This skill ensures students submit better quality assignments and are prepared for a lifetime of assessing the veracity of information.

For more information on how to incorporate library resources into your teaching or to schedule a workshop, please contact library@trentu.ca.