Supporting Group Study Projects

Lisa Anderson, Library Services, 2007/08          This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

I am setting my cohort a group project. They will need to research the topic and present their findings. How can Library Services support this type of group / independent

learning?

Group study rooms

•Several group study rooms in the Main Library with varying levels of facilities including webcam, PC, plasma screen, whiteboard, and flipcharts.

•All of the rooms can be booked by students at the Main Library, Reception and Information Desk.

•They can be booked for up to two hours at a time.

Online learning resources

GEL (Guide to Effective Learning) goes through all of the key steps of the research process.– http://www.gel.bham.ac.uk

Skills for Campushttp://www.gel.bham.ac.uk/Skills4Study.shtml– Improving your reading and note-making – Developing your academic writing – Critical Thinking – Referencing and Plagiarism

Online Learning Resources (2)

Netskills– http://www.skills.bham.ac.uk/resources/onli

ne.shtml#netskills Course documentation

– http://www.skills.bham.ac.uk/resources/documentation.shtml

IT Skills Training

Undergraduate students can register for online, self paced, IT training courses via the Course List at: http://www.weblearn.bham.ac.uk/selfenrol/

Via this service they can learn how to use:

•Excel, Word, Access

•European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL)

•Study Skills – plagiarism, critical thinking

Guides

You can read the Library guide to Search techniques

http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/searching/guides/skillsguides.shtml

Information Resources

•Availability of print material can be checked via the library catalogues: http://libcat.bham.ac.uk/

•Electronic material can be accessed via the eLibrary at www.elibrary.bham.ac.uk

It’s not in the Library!

•Information about Using other libraries:http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/using/otherlibraries/

•If you find an abstract of an article you would like but we do not have the journal in the Library you can get it through an Inter-Library Loan.http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/using/borrowing/interlibraryloans.shtml

The eLibrary

Has links to reputable websites and databases.

Students can search these databases in order to find references to books or journal articles on their topic.

www.elibrary.bham.ac.uk

Computing facilities

IT Services supports several computer clusters across the University.

http://www.clusters.bham.ac.uk/clusters.shtml

The largest cluster is the Learning Centre which is open for more hours then any other cluster.

Need a little support?

•If the students need help with finding information or using any of the library resources e.g. how to use a database, they can contact the Academic Support Team member assigned to their school.

•For full details of the Academic Support Team members go to:

http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/searching/subjectsupport/