Elizabeth Sanford

Ms. Sanford
Research and Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialties: Christian Studies, Business, English, and Modern Languages
P: (864) 231-5743 E: esanford@andersonuniversity.edu

Book time to meet with me.

Having an embedded librarian in your course is highly customizable way to integrate research support into your course. An embedded librarian can be as involved as the instructor would like, but often includes some of the following elements:

• Adding the librarian to your Canvas course, allowing him or her to add library resources or respond to student questions when appropriate.
  • Example: You have assigned a research project for the final. One of the related assignments is for the students to submit their research question to a Canvas discussion. The embedded librarian can then respond to students' posts with database and search strategy suggestions. 

• Instruction tailored to your students' needs and interests
  • Example: By meeting with you and reading your students' research questions, the embedded librarian knows that many students are going to need to access economic census data. He or she visits class and demonstrates how to use the economic census website. 
  • Example: Students meet the embedded librarian in class and establish a relationship with him or her. They then feel comfortable making an appointment when they get stuck at any point during the research process. 

• Support in strengthening your research assignments
  • Example: You share your students' final papers (with names removed) with the embedded librarian. He or she notices that students are struggling to integrate secondary sources into their papers. The embedded librarian suggests that next year you require that students submit an annotated bibliography earlier in the semester. He or she creates a workshop for students to talk through different ways that prior research can support their projects.

Are you interested in integrating artificial intelligence into your teaching or research? Your librarian can...

• Work with you to create assignments that give students the opportunity to leverage the power of AI, while still strengthening their human intelligence 
• Show you how to use AI tools for your own research (and offer warning about what to be wary of)
• Help you fine tune the AI policy that you implement in your courses
• Answer (or find the answer to) questions that you have about AI and copyright and AI and academic integrity

• Librarians and teaching faculty make a powerful team when it comes to instructional design. Your librarian is available to help you workshop your curriculum to include more opportunities for inquiry.
• Are you looking for a way to go beyond traditional undergraduate assignments? Speak to your librarian about how you can implement digital humanities methods in your classroom. 

• "One-shot" sessions are the most common form of information literacy instruction and usually include a general overview of fundamental library skills like navigating the website, using the catalog, and navigating databases. 
  • This type of basic instruction is most appropriate for lower-level courses.
  • A well-executed one-shot requires librarian-instructor collaboration to ensure that the material covered is specific to the course. Otherwise, one-shots become repetitive to students who likely experience them in multiple courses. 
• To make the most of our time together, one-shots are best scheduled after students have had the chance to navigate library resources on their own. This way, they come to class with an idea of what barriers they may encounter. 
  • It is helpful to have students already know their topic and have attempted to find 1-3 scholarly articles to support their project. 
  • If students need help with getting to that point, we have several video resources that can assigned.