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Welcome to the Davis Family Library!

Monday September 15, 2025 2:15-3:30 PM

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Introductions

  • Name, pronouns, where you are from, favorite thing about fall?

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Agenda

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  • What librarians can help with and how to contact them
  • Physical spaces in the library
  • LibrarySearch Tips
  • Course Specific Resources
  • How To: Read an academic article
  • Evaluating Sources

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Learning Goals

  • Students will gain an overview of how to contact librarians for help and orientation to the physical spaces in the library
  • Students will gain familiarity with the library catalog and effective search strategies
  • Students will learn where to start with locating course specific resources

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What Can Librarians Help With?

  • Finding resources for coursework or research projects
  • Developing more efficient search strategies
  • Formulating a research question
  • Literature reviews
  • Evaluating sources for credibility
  • Citations style, formatting, citation management
  • Finding, cleaning, and visualizing data & statistics
  • Questions about academic integrity and the honor code

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What kinds of things do librarians not provide support for? (and alternative support resources)

  • Copy editing your paper or assignment
  • Your peer writing tutor can help with this! See further resources in the Writing Center
  • Tutoring in a specific subject area (ie helping you complete an assignment, study for a test, etc.)
  • Center for Teaching Learning and Research Tutoring Resources (Languages, Social Sciences, Time management)
  • The Q Center (STEM and Quantitative tutoring)
  • Creating a website or hosting content online
  • DLINQ (Digital Learning & Inquiry) can help with that!

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Around the Library

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Contacting a Librarian for Help

AskUs

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LibrarySearch Tips

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  • Use Keywords to capture the main ideas of your topic/research question
  • Keep track of key words that yield effective results
  • Use Boolean Operators to help you narrow or broaden your search results
  • If you find a resource you want but the library doesn’t have access to it > You can always request it through Interlibrary Loan (use your middlebury email and password for SSO to login)

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Reading a Catalogue Record

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Some Recommended Starting Places

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Anatomy of a Research Article

Abstract - Brief summary/overview of the article with results and conclusions

Introduction- Usually points out the “why” of the article, how it contributes to overall literature/the field. Hypothesis or thesis is usually here

Literature Review - History of ideas author has drawn upon in their analysis through engaging with other work by scholars in the field on similar topics or ideas

Methods/Theoretical Framing - Lens used to analyze the content of the study

Conclusion- Results/implications, avenues for future study

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Tips on Determining Article Relevance

  • Not a linear process- read the abstract, introduction, methods section, and conclusion in full
  • Skim body content/paragraphs by reading the first and last sentences of the paragraph. Mark sections that seem relevant to your research question or topic to read closely later
  • Always keep your research question or topic in mind and continually ask yourself how this article relates to it, or if it is relevant to any part of your topic
  • Pay attention to the key words the article is indexed under within the journal

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Activity Time!

We are now going to put some of what we learned in practice with this activity: Evaluating Academic Articles

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Bibliography

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  • Vicedo, Melanee. Research Guides: Evaluating Information Sources: Reading Scholarly Articles. https://libguides.usc.edu/evaluate/scholarlyarticles. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.