This self-guided, active learning exercise for Zotero was originally created for a 1–1.5 hour standalone online workshop. Zotero is a free, open-source tool that helps users collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share references. It is easy enough for students to learn quickly, yet powerful enough to support dissertations, theses, and capstone projects. Zotero also provides a practical way to engage with the conceptual goals of the ACRL Framework, transforming abstract ideas such as “giving credit” and “joining a scholarly conversation” into concrete research practices.

The lesson plan focuses on importing sources related to “food insecurity” and “college students” into Zotero, correcting citation metadata, creating a quick bibliography, and generating a formatted bibliography in Microsoft Word using Zotero’s Word add-in. Students are provided with step-by-step instructions and supporting resources throughout each stage of the activity.

The exercise includes the following components:

• Part 1: Practice Importing to Zotero.
• Part 2: Practice: Correcting the Metadata.
• Part 3: Creating a Quick Bibliography in Zotero.
• Part 4: Citing and Creating a Bibliography in Word.

A sample research paper for Part 4 is available in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs formats.

Answer keys are provided in APA style.

A 15-minute instructional video covering Parts 1–3 is currently available. A second video covering Part 4 is in development.

The sixth in a series of 6 courses, students focus on the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Plan involving prescription medications, patient history, and more complex patient cases. The librarian has already met with these students in other courses so this is and scaffolded approach with this being their last session with the librarian. The purpose of the librarian session is to make sure they feel comfortable doing advanced research on drug information pertaining to specific topics that will be communicated to patients. In a previous session the librarian covered disparities and discrimination in both search engines and scholarly databases so this is to reinforce those lessons. The session starts with a brief Kahoot quiz (with prizes for winners) and discussion of any sticking points that become clear through this quiz. This is to allow students to teach and learn from each other and to assess their needs as opposed to assuming what they might be needing reinforcement on. Then the students break out into groups to create a patient education zine on smoking cessation for members of the LGBTQ2S+ communities. The zine has to have at least 2 background sources, 1 scholarly article, and 1 drug information portal source. All sources have to be cited in correct APA format. There also has to be at least one page where the group communicates to the patients how they found this information (in otherwords their search strategy). At the end of the class there is about 20 minutes set aside for the groups to present on their zines, what information they included, and why. The librarian makes copies of the zines for all members of the class afterwards, thus helping to build intrinsic motivation for sharing with their cohorts. The librarian for this course pre-makes the zine booklets and brings all supplies for making zines (such as markers, glue sticks, scissors, paper, magazines to cut up, etc.)

Algorithms are not neutral but this does not mean they are not useful tools for research. In this workshop on algorithmic bias, student learn how algorithms can perpetuate bias and discrimination and how to critically evaluate their search results.

This scaffolded assignment was developed for senior Dietetic students enrolled in a research methods course. The lessons were collaboratively created via a librarian-faculty partnership.

Reading charts and infographics is part of everyday life, yet telling a story with data can be tricky. Luckily, data visualization is a skill that everyone can learn! Data visualization is the practice of translating information into a visual context, helping humans understand complex concepts and making it easier to identify patterns and uncover insights. In this workshop, learn the basics of designing data visualizations, selecting appropriate graph styles, and how to identify misleading data visuals.

This video was put together to offer health sciences students a brief introduction to critically thinking about their resources in order to evaluate how appropriate they are for use in their work. It was important that the learners understand the complexities of using specific resources and why it is important to always critically evaluate materials. This includes a discussion of critiques of gatekeeping surrounding peer review, how damaging and discriminatory research can still get published, and how to ask crucial questions to subvert dominant narratives. The video primarily points to our research guide, which is linked below as well, in order to help plant the seeds of this conversation without overwhelming learners in the moment. You will find all materials for creation of the video as well as the closed caption script and the video itself here so that you can adapt it to your needs.

An open access MOOC in French to bonify the information literacy skills of university students (with Moodle).

A two-credit online undergraduate information literacy course used in an adult degree completion bachelor's program.