Library Instruction Services

Library instruction facilitates students’ critical thinking and engagement with research and information resources. Librarians are able to provide instruction and instructional support for all programs and courses, whether in person, online, or remote.

Request Library Instruction

Librarians provide course-integrated instruction, engaging students in active learning whenever possible. Contact the subject librarian for your department to request instruction and discuss your instructional goals, or use the form to request instruction.

Integrate Research Skills and Design Effective Research Assignments

Your subject librarian can review the course and program curriculum to help instructors with a research skills perspective and scaffold relevant instruction. By integrating research skills and critical thinking about information into curriculum in smaller steps, students

  • save time and panic at the busy end of term because students will have learned research skills well before their research project is due,
  • utilize and cite more comprehensive and authoritative sources
  • increase their ability to navigate and evaluate information sources as a lifelong learner

Additionally, the Information Literacy Toolkit is a collection of resources that instructors can use to help plan or implement information literacy and critical thinking assignments in classes. These resources can help you scaffold research skills into your classes, think of new ways to assign research, and help you assess your students’ work. The Toolkit provides readymade and customizable activities for your course:

“I’ve never taken a research class before, nor had I written a research article. Now I can figure out exactly how to research, and what tools are available to me.”
—Student

Guides & Tutorials for Instructional Support

Librarians develop online guides and tutorials to support research skills and provide access to relevant library resources. Guides and tutorials provide independent, point of need support for students, and lessens the burden on instructors to provide this information.

Librarians author course guides and related learning materials, tailored to specific assignments, in collaboration with instructors.

“I…relearned how to maintain an educated awareness on the validity of online resources and the importance of the context in which you cite certain web sources.”

Ensure Access to Course Materials

Your subject librarian can help you identify useful online Library resources, such as journal articles or streaming videos. Doing this saves:

  • time for the instructor because access to the readings or videos are verified prior to the point of need
  • students frustration by being to able to quickly access course materials
  • money by reducing the need to purchase books or materials
“As several of our faculty plan and engage with new online teaching formats, [the librarian] has helped us mobilize literature, practice frameworks, and other resources to ensure that our exploration of these tools is effective, efficient, and ethical.”
—Faculty member

Budget and time permitting, your librarian may be able to purchase new resources for your course.

Information Literacy Framework

Portland State Librarians develop our curriculum using the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.