Research suggests that many first-year students--especially marginalized students--experience library anxiety that prevents them from seeking help in the library. However, the more they experience library resources, the lower their anxiety becomes. By bringing your students to the library, you will provide them with the following anxiety-reducing experiences:

• Meeting librarians and getting their expert help in navigating the increasingly complex information landscape
• Connecting to the unique library resources that will help them throughout college
• Exploring study spaces and opportunities in the library

This activity will complement the database instruction that first-year students receive in their writing class by focusing on the physical space and human helpers that the library offers.

The UNIV 101 homework options include two library-related tasks. These assignments provide specific opportunities for students to engage with a library resource, but they do not showcase the diversity of library resources nor do they encourage students to explore the library collaboratively. The library activities (see Options) are collaborative and expansive.

Click here to schedule your library activity. Library personnel have prepared several options that can be completed during class:

• Seeking Truth through Library Resources: students will explore the library resources and services through an activity that will take them to various locations in the library. 
• Discovering Truth by Asking Good Questions (Special Collections): students will engage with primary source materials to learn how to observe and ask good questions about what they are seeing. These skills can be applied to any text they encounter. This tour has limited availability. 
• Learning Truth through Family Connections (Family History): students will work with Family History specialists to explore how connections to their family can give them insight into the development of their understanding of truth. 
• Exploring the Library (self-guided tour): students will have a series of challenges to complete in the library. They will access the activity on their electronic device and report their success in completing the challenges. 
• Custom experience: we have many areas of the library that are helpful and interesting to students. You can arrange a tour that customizes what your students see in the library. For example, the fourth floor has project creation services such as media production, maker space, and software tools. These services can be fun and engaging for the students and a great way to expand students' view of what the library offers. We can also combine a few areas related to your academic interests and focus the tour on those areas of the library. 

Each experience can be designed to take 50 minutes or less depending on your needs.

The best time to schedule your session at the beginning of the semester. However, if you schedule during the semester please give us at least two business days to arrange the tour. Once we have the session scheduled and assigned, we will contact you with a confirmation of your reservation and more details on the library session.