Empowering learning through library instruction
We regard our teaching as a way to support the university’s priorities, including:
- Student Achievement
- Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
- Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion
In particular, we seek to nurture curiosity and support UNLV students, faculty, and staff as they pursue academic interests, career advancement, and lifelong learning.
We strive to make our teaching learner-centered. We do not just teach library resources. Instead, our goal is to help learners use information, data, and technology strategically and responsibly to pursue their own goals and interests.
We provide instruction on library resources, services, and research. Request course-specific instruction tailored to these topics:
| Research lifecycle | Topics for instruction |
|---|---|
| Search for an evaluate information |
|
| Synthesize and produce something new |
|
| Connect with the audience |
|
We collaborate with faculty and tailor all library instruction to course and student needs. Instruction for your class may include one or more of the following:
- A consultation with a librarian to help design your research assignment to be transparent, inclusive, and engaging
- A course-integrated in-person class session with active learning strategies
- A librarian embedded in your WebCampus course via the “librarian” role or through a course guide
- Interactive tutorials that teach to learning outcomes specific to the course
Our course-integrated instruction, workshops, outreach programming, and learner support services reflect the following broad learning themes:
Learners will...
Feel welcome in the Libraries and develop a sense of belonging that will encourage future use and engagement.
- Cultivate connections with peers, University Libraries’ staff and faculty, and the UNLV community.
- Relate the University Libraries’ collections and resources to their scholarly and personal interests.
- Feel encouraged to ask for assistance at library service points and in individual consultations.
Pursue questions and search for information strategically, adjusting the approach as one learns more.
- Plan research in light of personal interests, assignment requirements, and available information.
- Consult experts for assistance/guidance at service points and by appointment.
- Match information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools.
- Use different types of searching language appropriately, including
- Keywords.
- Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT).
- Known-item searches.
- Revise search strategies based on gaps or weaknesses in gathered information.
- Identify discipline-specific information search tools and repositories.
Critically examine evidence and consider multiple perspectives as key to learning from information and data.
- Evaluate information sources for credibility, reliability, and relevance.
- Engage with a range of perspectives to develop their own stance.
- Recognize that authority or credibility depends on context.
- Develop familiarity with discipline-specific information formats.
- Interpret and understand infographics and other visualizations proficiently.
- Meaningfully include marginalized voices.
Explore social, political, cultural and economic contexts that influence the creation, access, and use of information.
- Consider how social and economic differences influence access to information.
- Reflect on social, political, and economic contexts that center or marginalize particular points of view.
- Respect and include individuals from different backgrounds and identities.
- Navigate financial aspects of the information and data ecosystem.
- Explore data stewardship principles that facilitate re-use by others (FAIR principles) while respecting the rights of groups involved in the data’s creation and history (CARE principles).
Present and share work appropriately in ways that connect and engage with the intended audience.
- Navigate library resources and spaces as options for preparing research deliverables such as papers, posters, visualizations, and presentations.
- Consider strategies for publishing and sharing work openly (e.g., Open Access).
- Consider UNLV’s institutional repository (Digital Scholarship@UNLV) as an option for sharing one’s work with a global audience.
- Appraise conferences and journals as venues for sharing research.
- Monitor and enhance the impact of one’s works.
Use the work of others responsibly and ethically.
- Consult available resources to inform decision-making about citation, fair use, and copyright.
- Reflect on the ethical use of generative AI (artificial intelligence).
- Find and cite openly-licensed material for use in multimodal projects.
Use tools and resources creatively, effectively, and responsibly in the development of new knowledge and creative works.
- Work with the Libraries’ creative spaces to develop scholarly and creative works.
- Select appropriate devices, software, and materials for a project.
- Plan and manage tools-based projects effectively.
- Use technology to collect, analyze, and visualize data.
Use or create information to learn about and contribute to their communities.
- Pursue research to inform civic engagement and advocacy.
- Participate in scholarly and practitioner review processes.
- Use multimodal projects to inform conversations on topics of public interest.
- Develop educational programming that reflects diverse identities and meets the needs of P-12 students and families.
Alongside instructional partners, devise strategies to integrate the above learning goals meaningfully into the curriculum.
- Collaborate with the library to design creative research assignments, including
- MakerSpace and multimedia options.
- Research with primary sources.
- Assignments to enhance data literacy.
- Research to build media and information literacy.
- Consult with the library about providing students access to course-related materials.
- Consult with the library about accreditation standards for collections and information literacy.