Courses / Module

GST2 – Finding Information for your Thesis – will kick off on Wednesday 7th October with a 2 hour introduction to the library. This will take place in the library training room D.

Following this session, students will be broken up by subject and will have individual or group tutorials for in-depth subject work with their relevant subject librarians. These tutorials will be agreed between the students and the subject librarian and may take place in either semester.

On the 20th October, Ciarán Quinn and Suzanne Redmond Maloco will deliver a joint 3 hour workshop on Research Skills/Open Access Resources/How to submit a thesis.

This programme is designed to develop and enhance the “finding the best information” experience of all first year research students. It directs students to the most appropriate research level academic resources, provides advice on using a range of academic databases and online resources, and also will provide key information on how to manage references. These key skills are necessary both at the earlier stages of formulating a research question but also throughout the PhD programme. These topics will be addressed mainly through active collaborative experiences in a workshop based environment and also through one initial lecture.

Module Content
Considering search terms when gathering, assessing and using information

• Library Catalogue at NUIM, other library catalogues, Inter Library Loans
• Joining NUIM and other libraries using ALCID, SCONUL, other visitor schemes
• Literature searching, citation searching and finding materials using the most relevant databases
• Finding newspaper, conference, theses, research and specialist publications
• Managing information – citing references and using software to manage your information, e.g. EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley
• Keep up to date, share research and build a network , create electronic alerts
• Learner proposed topics as suggested by participants.

Duration
A number of sessions with further student independent learning facilitated throughout the first year of study and into year two and three of the research programme.


Year 2 & Year 3
Annual half-day workshop with relevant faculty subject librarians for advanced subject analysis.

Venue
All sessions will be delivered at NUI Maynooth. The initial lecture should be delivered in a lecture theatre with faculty workshops in the library – numbers permitting