Library Instruction

Library Learning Lab: 1L-214

Email: libraryinstruction@csi.cuny.edu

Coordinator of Library Instruction: Anne Adkison

The mission of the Library Instruction Program is to support CSI’s General Education curriculum goal of information literacy and provide students with the skills necessary for college and graduate level discipline-specific research. Library faculty seek to encourage the habits of critical inquiry and lifelong learning which are key elements of participation in a global information society.

We now offer three modes of library instruction:

In Person: bring your class to our Library Learning Classroom, room 214 on the second floor of the Library, for a hands-on instruction session. Students will learn about discipline-specific research skills using library resources. Instruction is tailored to the syllabus and research assignment. After the lecture, students can perform their own searches at computer stations while the librarian is in the room to answer questions.

Online Synchronous: an instruction librarian will meet you in your class's weekly zoom room for an interactive instruction session. Students will learn about discipline-specific research skills using library resources. Instruction is tailored to the specific class theme and research assignment. Students should feel empowered to ask the librarian questions based on their research project.

Online Asynchronous: we have not been getting many of these requests post-pandemic, so I disabled this type of request on our instruction form. If you want us to make videos, please email libraryinstruction (at) csi.cuny.edu

If you would like to request Library Instruction for your class that addresses a research-related assignment, please fill out the request form linked below. Our instruction librarians can provide in-person or online synchronous instruction, depending on your needs and what works best for your students' assignments. There are a few of us, and thousands of students; we can only provide instruction for classes with a research-related assignment.

To schedule instruction, please fill out the Library Instruction Request Form.

The library instruction team is creating an asynchronous online curriculum for ENG 151 composition courses. These resources live on the ENG 151 Research Guide linked below. You may also share with them our Online Tutorials, which we build with first year students in mind, and our complete Instructional Video Collection, which address databases ENG 151 students will find useful.

We have created a suite of information literacy & research tutorials to help students get started using the library. These tutorials were designed with first-year students in mind, but they are equally useful for any student, faculty, or staff member who needs an introduction to our library's services. To better serve our student community, we have matched the lessons to our ENG 111 and ENG 151 instruction. During the fall and spring semesters we publish a long online tutorial with a quiz, which students can take for CC-CLUE credit. Students can choose to send the quiz results directly to their own emails or to their professor's email, based on their needs.

Our online chat service is available 24/7 and is designed to support the CSI community needing assistance with research and other curricular issues. If a CUNY librarian is not available, an academic librarian from one of our partner libraries will assist you.