At the University Library, we offer instruction services in person and online. Every year, CSUN librarians provide Library lectures to more than 20,000 students, designed and specifically tailored to support students with their research for their assignments. Library faculty look forward to collaborating with you during 2023-2024 to support your teaching and student learning. Requests for Library Instruction sessions in the Library teaching labs, your usual classroom or via Zoom can be made below:
From CSUN Faculty Development Transparent Assignment redesign workshop faculty attendees:
"I met with [my librarian] to go over my assignment and I just finished grading the papers and for the first time, I have no plagiarism and I think the papers have improved tremendously.”
“Meeting with the librarian helped me see things from an outside perspective and realize where I wasn’t being clear so I was able to modify accordingly. Hoping that once the students see this it will help the assignment make more sense to them, but we will see!
From Library Canvas modules students:
"This was very informative and helpful. It makes it seem much easier to find resources for class assignments."
"Ulrichsweb is a new program that I learned about and would've loved to have known about earlier in my college career. I'm definitely sharing that with my classmates because that's a common issue I hear that happens between group projects, as well as a common question that's asked to professors."
"I really liked the way this module was organized in clarifying the different cases of plagiarism, specifically using your own past assignments."
Finding high-quality, affordable online course materials can be a daunting, time-consuming task. We want to work with you to ensure that all students have access to the required materials on day one.
We will help your students select appropriate online resources (e-books, peer-reviewed articles, streaming videos, etc) and connect them to other campus resources.
We can work with you to design research assignments and help connect your students to self-paced modules to improve their critical thinking and information literacy skills.
Getting Help with Assignments: Students can increase awareness of resources and services important for online learning. Studies have shown libraries can enhance information literacy in online undergraduate courses. Based on a study of all first-time freshmen in Fall 2017, students who use library reserves are more likely to earn more credit in their first year and are more likely to return for their second year.
Avoiding Plagiarism: Help connect students to instructional support resources that can assist with proper citation methods to avoid plagiarism as well as campus writing support services available online through the CSUN Learning Resource Center. You can learn more about scheduling an online writing tutoring session.
Reducing Frustration and Anxiety: Being able to connect with a library faculty member who is ready to assist students with their individual needs. We have many methods and practices for engaging students who may need more assistance with their studies.
When developing and preparing course materials:
Consider adopting high quality, more affordable course materials
Consider ebooks already available through library subscriptions
If using an ebook in the catalog, please email your subject specialist to confirm the whole class can access it simultaneously
If you already have a textbook on which your course is based, please submit the request to Course Reserves and we will try to purchase it as an ebook. Putting items on library course reserve is a move for student equity and inclusion, by making them accessible to students with lower incomes.
If you assign articles from newspapers or magazines, link through University Library subscriptions to avoid unexpected paywalls. (Articles you thought were free at the time you assigned them might require creating an account: even a free account puts an unnecessary speed bump in the way of your students’ learning. Or the publisher might have an articles-per-month limit the student has already reached.)
If you plan to assign films, please remember to browse our Streaming Video collection so you can connect your students and course to the University Library’s collection of documentaries, films and more.
Request a customized library instruction session
Any time you assign a project that calls for outside sources, please consider scheduling a library session for your students to learn how to do research.
When it may be beneficial to schedule a synchronized library session, please also consider embedding our self-paced Canvas research modules into your courses or consider directing your students to the Library Research Toolkit course at https://canvas.csun.edu/enroll/L7B6KB.
After a scheduled library instruction session
Your students can ask a librarian for help via Zoom, live chat, phone, and email.
Subject specialist librarians are available to set up individual appointments with you and your students.
We also offer video tutorials, guides, and Canvas modules that support the research process
