Starting this semester, the library is expanding its offering of research-skills instruction to include a series of workshops on diverse and timely topics. Most of the new sessions will be held in-person in library classrooms, as a means to get students out to the library and engage with them in meaningful discussions related to various aspects of 21st-century research and learning practices.
Many of the new workshops are intended to ask students to dig deeper and critically into their investigative practices related to some of the most defining issues of our decade. These include sessions on Climate Literacy, Fake News and Disinformation, Decolonizing Research Practices and Generative AI.
Other topics are more skills-based in nature, such as 3D Printing or Avoiding Online Scams. A session on Statistics Canada data will demonstrate how to best access and interpret census and health information as provided by StatsCan, and how to incorporate that data into course assignments. All sessions have a general audience in mind and will be particularly useful for anyone new to those areas of interest.
All the library workshops offered this semester are free and open for registration. In offering them, library staff hope to broaden perspectives of StFX students and commit them to continuous inquiry and critical thinking as they make their way through their programs of study. These workshops will build our students capacity for innovation and resilience in these changing times, and perhaps even allow them to build community around these important topics.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me, Samantha Read, with any questions you may have about the sessions. Although they are intended for students, faculty and staff are also welcome to attend and contribute their views. Suggestions for further workshop ideas are always welcome.
