Library Services

Librarians at the Thompson Library are happy to provide instruction on using library resources to your students. We can:

• tailor an instruction session to the needs of your course or assignment, 
• come to the usual meeting place for your class or you can bring your class to the library,
• create video tutorials on a particular database or information resource,
• do a presentation about library resources or provide a hands-on session for students,
• use an entire class period (or more!), or
• provide a brief refresher on library services.

Part of our professional standards include the Association of College & Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, which we include in our instruction sessions and embed in our Research Process Guide. The Framework is not library specific and we encourage all faculty and instructors to use its core concepts in your classes.

The six frames of the Framework are

• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as a Process
• Information Has Value
• Research as Inquiry
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Searching as Strategic Exploration

To request an instruction session please fill out the online form below, or you can contact your Liz Svoboda, Instruction and Outreach Librarian.

• We prefer at least one week's notice so we can provide the best possible service for you and your students.
  • For video tutorials, please give at least three week's notice for video creation.
• We prefer not to offer instruction the first week of classes each semester.  We find that students retain what they learn about the library much more successfully if instruction is offered about the same time that they will begin working on the project on which they will apply their library skills.

Except for campus tours for visitors or incoming students, library orientations or instruction sessions involving groups are to be conducted only by the Thompson Library faculty or designated staff, or by UM-Flint departmental faculty or staff members in co-operation with the librarians. These sessions are to be confined to classes conducted under UM-Flint auspices, to classes from area schools, and to those with recognizable professional interest in aspects of the library.

Exceptions to this rule:

• Groups with an interest in a collection that is locally unique to the Thompson Library; for example, a collection in the Genesee Historical Collections Center
• Groups of prospective UM-Flint students could be included if, in the judgment of the director, assistant director, or research instruction librarians, such group visits are in the best interests of the UM-Flint

To arrange an orientation or research instruction session for a class, instructors should contact one of the research instruction librarians or the liaison librarian for their department.

Rationale: Instruction in library use is, above all other aspects of their positions, the prime responsibility of the librarians, who are most familiar with the collection and how to use it.

Because library group tours can be disruptive to students using and studying in the library, we must generally limit these sessions to groups whose payment of tuition and fees to the University provides them a basis for demanding the fullest possible library service.

Enacted 5/1983, Revised 4/2001, Revised 9/2005, Revised 9/2006