INTRODUCTION TO LIBRARY ORIENTATION

Reference support for students must be combined with library orientation and instruction.  We encourage students to ask for help, but we know that most students want to learn how to find information for themselves. 

Once, the problem we faced was information scarcity.  Now, we must sort through an abundance of information, much of it in digital format and online, to find the best answers to our questions.  Through library tours and this self-paced orientation program, you will learn how to access and navigate this world of online databases to find abstracts, statistics, full-text magazine and newspaper articles, and thousands of full-text books from your home computer.

To complete this self-paced, library orientation, please remember that the time it takes to finish is based on the degree of your computer literacy.  Some students have finished the worksheet in twenty minutes; and others require a little more than an hour.

The self-paced program changes every year, sometimes every term, because the databases themselves are not static.  New databases are included, older ones are deleted from the menu, and student feedback helps us to improve the orientation program. Please feel free to offer suggestions that will make this activity more clear and practical for you! 

Now select the "Databases Explained" link if you are doing the general library orientation.

Click here to download the Research Skills Activity in pdf format. (You need to download Acrobat Reader 8.0 to be able to directly input your answers. Otherwise, you'll need to copy the worksheet into a Word document.  You may also print it out and bring it in.)

Databases Explained

Pyschology Orientation

Criminal Justice