FYS Faculty Resources

FYS and Library Research Overview

The liaison librarians with the University Library are committed to providing information literacy and library research instruction for all students, with a special focus on the FYS program. No matter the seminar topic, all FYS courses include a common Information Literacy Learning Outcome that asks students to "be able to effectively access, evaluate, and make ethical use of appropriate sources of information for different scholarly purposes." To achieve this, students will do the following in their FYS:

1. Take the Library FYS Pre- and Post-Test to assess their information literacy skills before and after their FYS program. This helps liaison librarians better understand students’ incoming skill set and measure their growth over their first semester.
   1. Library FYS Pre-Test Blackboard Link:TBD
2. Take the Top 13 Library Tips online tutorial prior to starting their FYS course. This provides students a basic overview of library services and orients them to the physical library space.
   1. Top 13 Tutorials Blackboard Link: TBD
3. Have incorporated into their FYS at least one required session of information literacy and library research. The session will focus on fundamental research skills tied to the seminar topic. While at least one session is required, FYS instructors may schedule additional library sessions as needed.
4. Complete at least one assignment requiring research and/or library resources beyond their core texts. The exact format and specific requirements for the assignment are determined by the course instructor, but can incorporate lessons and reference assistance from their liaison librarian.

While the pre- and post-test and Top 13 Tips are required for students, they are not directly tied to their FYS course grade. The library asks students to complete both assessments by ____ however they are not required to complete both assessments prior to the FYS library instruction session.

Each of the links above comes from the "FYS Library Research" Blackboard course, which all first-year students are automatically enrolled in prior to the start of Fall. Faculty members themselves will not be able to access the pre-test and tutorial links above, as they have not been added to the Blackboard course. Please contact Kyle Jenkins (kyle.jenkins@richmond.edu) with any questions or issues regarding the content in Blackboard. You can also find a copy of the FYS pre-test questions in the PDF document below:

Links to share with students:

Links for FYS faculty: