Research Skills Workshops
Warm up your research skills with the Library’s winter workshops!
Upcoming workshops this term include:
- Find Books and More!
This workshop is your starting point for conducting research at the Library. Learn how to find books, journals, electronic resources, and more. Discover hands-on how to locate resources, access course reserves, manage your library account, collect and export references, and set up alerts for search results.
- Better Searching – Better Marks
Make smart use of your time: better searching can lead to better marks. Learn to construct searches that provide the information you need, rather than a million useless hits. In this hands-on session learn advanced techniques to locate books, journal articles, and web resources.
- Introduction to RefWorks
Learn how to manage your references, create bibliographies, and format your papers in a variety of citation styles using RefWorks, a web-based citation software freely available to all Waterloo students, faculty, and staff.
- Advanced RefWorks
Become a power RefWorks user! If you are already using RefWorks and Write N Cite but you would like to take better advantage of these powerful tools, this workshop is for you.
- Keep Current with Research Alerts
Stay current in your field of research! Learn how to automate your searches for new and relevant research by having search results and journal tables of contents sent to you on a regular basis. Find out about the alerting services available in Web of Science and CSA databases, RSS feeds, and the Library’s search tool, Primo.
- Mapping with Esri ArcGIS Desktop 10.1
Would you like to create a map for your course assignment or research project but don’t know where to start? This workshop will teach you the basics with the popular Esri ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 program. You will learn how to add GIS data, how to create simple maps, and where to find GIS data and resources.
- Accessing Government Information
Learn to navigate the world of government information! Improve your government documents searching skills and ability to find various formats of government publications. Discover how to access Canadian federal and Ontario provincial government paper and electronic documents.
- GIS Analysis with Esri ArcGIS Desktop 10.1
Would you like to perform a GIS analysis for your course assignment or research project but don’t know where to begin? This workshop will teach you the most frequently used GIS analysis tools: buffer, clip, select by location or attribute.
- Research Competencies
Would you like to learn how to use other sources of information besides Google? Come prepared with 3 – 5 research questions and learn how to match up the information you need with the library’s resources.
- Calculating Your Academic Footprint: Making Citation Tracking Easy
The workshop provides a hands-on learning environment to explore using RefWorks (or other bibliographic management software) and any research database, with citation tracking and search alert capabilities, to maintain an accurate list of your own publications and track and collect citations of your work. The process will help you to identify the best citation tracking sources for your field, uses multiple sources to ensure all your work is tracked and maximizes citation counts. The workshop does not delve into author focused impact factors (e.g. h-index etc).
- Demystifying the Statistics Canada Website
This workshop provides you with an overview of the Statistics Canada website, including effective techniques for uncovering the vast amount of statistical information available.
- Data Retrieval from Statistics Canada Surveys
This session provides you with an overview of ODESI, the platform for searching and downloading Statistics Canada datasets made available through the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI). Basic knowledge of data analysis is presumed.
- Finding Conference Proceedings
Finding conference proceedings can be tricky! This hands-on session will introduce you to deciphering conference proceedings citations and provide you with the tools to navigate the often complicated search process.
See the workshop registration page for full workshop descriptions and to sign up.
For more information, contact:
Chair, Library Instruction Committee
Ext. 36860
, Communications and Liaison Librarian
, Co-ordinator, Library Communications and Web Management
, Assistant, Library Communications and Web Development
January 25, 2013
