Staley Library's instruction program exists to support the academic curriculum of Millikin University. Our goal is to empower students to become information literate, able to apply critical thinking skills in the retrieval and evaluation of information, confident in their information seeking abilities, and grow into life-long learners.

Millikin University's mission is also reflected in the Library instruction program as students are prepared for professional success, democratic citizenship, and a personal life of meaning and value.

Research instruction for CWRR & University Seminar

Librarians distribute a self-guided tour to all students in the University Seminar. The goal of the tour is to introduce students to physical locations and services in the library and help relieve any "library anxiety" that they may feel.

Librarians devote one class session to introducing the concept of information literacy, explaining about Library services and resources, and a demonstration of the Library website. A discussion of plagiarism and citing sources is also included. Students complete the first module of the Millikin Information Literacy tutorial (MILT) and a short quiz. See the Library's Critical Writing, Reading and Research 1 webpage for more information.

Librarians spend an equivalent of one week with students (3 sessions for MWF classes and 2 sessions for T/Th classes). Research instruction in CWRR2 focuses on how to retrieve and evaluate information. In these hands-on sessions, librarians demonstrate the Library catalog and databases, and explain how to evaluate material retrieved from print resources, databases, and the Internet. Students complete the second and third modules of the Millikin Information Literacy tutorial (MILT) that contains two short quizzes. Students also complete a search strategy worksheet and a web evaluation assignment. Towards the end of the semester students complete the Information Literacy Assessment Quiz that measures what library and research skills that students have learned throughout the CWRR sequence. See the Library's Critical Writing, Reading and Research 2 webpage for more information.

If you have further questions, contact Debbie Myers, Instructional Services Coordinator, ext. 6719, e-mail dmmyers@millikin.edu.

As part of their responsibilities as members of the Staley Library professional staff, and as Millikin University faculty members, the Staley Library librarians provide research instruction sessions to academic classes. This instruction is available for ALL classes, although in terms of the number of sections taught, our primary emphasis is on freshmen and the Critical Writing, Reading, and Research (CWRR) sequence and the University Seminar.

Spring 2008 CWRR Instruction Memo

Spring 2008 CWRR Instruction Schedule

Student Learning in Library Research Instruction for CWRR

Mission Statement | CWRR & University Seminar | Instruction Beyond CWRR

Research instruction for other subject areas beyond CWRR

It is important to note that students gain only an introduction to research skills and experience in subject-specific research in these CWRR sessions will be minimal. It should also be remembered that the skills the students do learn are at a beginning level, which may not be adequate as students progress to more sophisticated and topic-specific course content. At a faculty member's request, librarians will be pleased to teach these advanced skills in individually tailored sessions. This service is available to any class offered at Millikin University.

If you would like to request library instruction for your class, please call or e-mail Debbie Myers, Library Instruction Coordinator or contact the liaison for your subject area. We ask that requests be made at least one week in advance of the session to allow us time to adequately address the needs of each individual class and to reserve computer lab space when needed.

If you have further questions, contact Debbie Myers, Instructional Services Coordinator, ext. 6719, e-mail dmmyers@millikin.edu.

Library Instruction Mission Statement

Research instruction for CWRR & University Seminar

Research instruction for other subject areas beyond CWRR