Library Instruction Resources: Guides and Tutorials

 We develop discipline-specific library-related materials (for example, links to relevant databases, database tutorials, research guides, and more.  Search the Canvas Commons for library-related resources and add them to your courses, or reach out at hisled@ecu.edu to collaborate on resources for your students.

Joyner Library Tutorials and Learning Objects

Overview of Contents

Joyner Library produces and maintains a wide range of tutorials, learning objects, and other media to serve the students, staff, and faculty of ECU.  Most of these resources can be embedded directly into Blackboard courses, or shared via a direct link.  For a longer reading on information literacy concepts, Joyner Library offers Information Literacy Concepts, a context-neutral PDF introduction to libraries and research.

For an overview of tutorial creation tools, please note our Tutorial Creation Resources page.

@Joyner Library 

• Our website.  Take a guided tour of the Joyner Library homepage.
• One Search.  The ECU Libraries discovery service searches across both the physical collection and a majority of the electronic collection.
• The Library Catalog.  The catalog searches across the physical collection and ebooks.
• Interlibrary Loan.  When ECU Libraries does not own the book or article you need, we can request it for you from another library.
• Placing a Hold on a Book.  Would you like to be notified when a book is returned?  Need a book delivered to another ECU library?  

Guides to Specific Databases

Want a step-by-step guided walk-through of a database? Welcome to our collection of Guides on the Side. Select a database from the drop menu below.

Overview: Purpose and goals

This open educational resource provides learners with an overview of major information literacy concepts identified in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy.  Information literacy skills are tied to student success according to library literature, and improving the information literacy skills of students at East Carolina University and elsewhere contributes to retention and their ability to navigate real-world information needs.

Intended Learners

Intended learners for this reading include students in their final year of high school as well as those in the first year or two of college.  Specifically, these are learners encountering college-level research assignments for the first time.  They are likely unfamiliar with many basic research concepts, such as databases and Boolean operators, but will be shortly expected to conduct research and locate high-quality sources for their research-based assignments. 

Content includes:

• What is Information Literacy?
• How Libraries Work
• What’s Credible Anymore?  Fake News and evaluating the information you encounter during your research
• The Information Landscape: an Overview of information types and when they appear in publication
• Navigating the Information Landscape:  Search Engines, Library Databases, Library of Congress Classification, and Discovery Tools
• The Research Process:  Settling on a topic, identifying keywords, and retrieving the information you need
• The Ethical Use of Information:  About academic integrity, avoiding plagiarism, and scholarship as a conversation