The Dana Health Sciences Library offers instructional and didactic sessions for groups, departments, or classes. Learn how to use information resources for research, teaching, and patient care. Contact your liaison librarian with requests, questions, and ideas.

Get started by contacting us!

Here are some examples of in-person or virtual educational sessions we offer:

• Database & literature searching
• Measuring your scholarly impact
• Using citation management tools
• Introduction to conducting systematic or scoping reviews
• Techniques for critical appraisal

Work with us

Integrate and sequence information literacy into your classes and across the curriculum.

• Develop information literacy outcomes for courses
• Embed information literacy into the curriculum
• Design assignments that support information literacy
• Teach targeted classes on information literacy and research strategies
• Create online learning experiences for your students

We can help students:

• Refine research questions
• Develop skills to identify a broad range of research materials
• Think critically about information and how it is produced and valued
• Manage information
• Use information ethically

Special Collections has an active instruction program that provides students at all levels and in a wide range of disciplines with hands-on educational opportunities using materials from our collections. We welcome all UVM classes, as well as classes from other area colleges and schools.

Instruction Services

• Class sessions in Special Collections
  • Special Collections librarians provide introductions to archival research and teach class sessions focused on our holdings in a particular subject area. We often co-teach sessions with class instructors, working with them to offer inquiry-based investigations.
  • Class instructors may reserve our classroom to teach with Special Collections materials. We can help you locate materials to support your teaching,
• Classroom visits: Special Collections librarians visit your classroom to introduce students to our resources, research tools, and procedures and give presentations on specialized topics.
• Course guides: We create web-accessible guides to help students identify Special Collections resources and tools useful for a class or assignment.
• Assignment support: We identify and reserve material that students use on their own time in our reading room. Students can also make their own requests.
• Research consultations: Special Collections librarians meet with individual students or small groups to discuss research strategies and suggest resources.

Plan a visit

• Please contact our instruction coordinator as far in advance as possible, but at least two weeks before you hope to schedule a class session.
• A Special Collections librarian and the class instructor work together to establish goals and learning objectives and to design a class session.
• Share the course syllabus, assignment and any other material that will help the Special Collections librarian select appropriate material.

Policies

• Students using our closed stack materials for assignments will be required to register, present identification and follow our reading room guidelines.
• We will accommodate early morning, early evening and weekend classes whenever possible.
• The class instructor should plan to be present during a Special Collections session.