Students can still join this fall semester with 8-week courses starting in October at Georgia Highlands College (GHC). The 8-week classes offer a range of course topics, including a new library education class called “Online Research for College Students.”
The new class is provided by the library system at GHC, and the course provides students with a greater knowledge of educational resources while mastering necessary research skills for advanced academic courses and professional careers.
Caroline Evergreen, who serves as Reference & Instruction Librarian for the Cartersville Campus Library, said “Online Research for College Students” introduces library resources, the general internet, data literacy, keywords and searching, information literacy, source evaluation, information ethics and academic integrity as well as how to write and cite papers in the correct style.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to watch some of the students in the class go on to other courses and research projects where they are the leader among their peers,” Evergreen said.
While this course is new, the GHC Library has always had a robust information literacy program with library faculty teaching singular or guest lectures in another faculty members class. For example, the GHC library faculty expanded that to offer “embedded librarianship,” which is a series of workshops and interactions with the students.
Reference & Instruction Librarian and College Archivist Melanie Vincent said feedback from students taking this kind of course has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I feel like students clearly benefit from the material and will use the information long after they graduate,” Vincent said.
