Champlain College Saint-Lambert in Quebec is a longtime subscriber of Credo Reference and a Cégep. In Infobase’s latest case study, Nicole Haché, Librarian at Champlain’s George Wallace Library, shares her experience and ideas on basic research instruction for her college’s first-year students. She discusses the specific challenges of working with young students and why starting research with resources like Credo Reference are so effective for this user group.

1. Educate new students while ensuring solid usage of library resources 

• Introduce students to select resources that will instruct and meet the beginning researcher’s basic needs
• Avoid introducing students to robust discovery services at this stage to avoid confusing them

2. Build higher-level researchers

• Partner with Humanities department to help students build higher-level research skills
• Embed information literacy sessions in mandatory freshman course to focus on the fundamentals of research and research paper writing skills
• Give students a Moodle “Introduction to Research” quiz and have them use Credo Reference to find the answers to the questions

3. Start with Credo Reference

• Show students how to navigate Credo Reference for research during the first few months of classes
• Have students start their research with Credo Reference first, before other sources
• Partner with a teacher to help promote usage of Credo Reference

Read the full case study here!

What Is Credo Reference?

Named a “Must-Have Database” by Library Journal in 2020, Credo Reference enhances the research experience through authoritative reference content and a one-stop exploratory search platform that drives usage of all trusted library resources. The user-friendly interface is ideal for students starting their research or learning about the research process during information literacy instruction. With hundreds of searchable, full-text titles from the world’s foremost publishers, Credo Reference covers every major subject.

See also: 

• Allen Community College Supports Student Success with Films On Demand and Credo Reference: Academic Core
• Library Journal Names Credo Reference to Its “Must-Have Databases for Academic and Public Libraries for 2020”
• Infobase’s Information Literacy Toolkit, for resources that support information literacy—and so much more!—at all levels