As Outreach Librarian for the Social Sciences for the University of Rochester, I support scholarly pursuits of the students, faculty and staff of multiple departments and programs including Anthropology, Political Science, International Relations, Public Health and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies. This includes actively participating in research, teaching, and learning processes; advancing equity with a reparative justice mind-set when teaching and assessing information literacy and developing library collections; building strong relationships with faculty and other professionals across the institution; providing in-person and virtual research consultation services; engaging and collaborating with faculty, students, and staff around current and emerging digital technologies and initiatives for learning and research to support a dynamic, student-centered research environment that encourages inquiry, critical thinking and creativity.
Areas of responsibility include:
✓ General and subject-specific reference assistance in the social sciences.
✓ Liaison and scholarly communications, providing outreach to academic, student services and community programs for Anthropology, Political Science and International Relations, Public Health Sociology and the Gender, Sexuality and Women's studies program, as well as various other fields within the social sciences.
✓ Participation in and development of specialized information literacy instruction for the social sciences.
✓ Engagement in collection development and information resources management in the aforementioned departments.
Why book an appointment? Research consultations can help with:
✓ How to select and/or narrow a topic idea into a research question.
✓ Figuring out what type of information you need (e.g. do you need data, review articles that provide overviews of scholarship on your topic, empirical research/studies and/or primary source materials?).
✓ Identifying what databases and or journals to use to find the information you need.
✓ Brainstorming the best keywords to use when searching for information.
✓ Evaluating the information sources you find.
✓ Help citing sources using a particular citation style.
✓ Find and use emerging tech tools.
✓ Sharing advice on where to go or who to ask to get you connected with other offices or services on campus.
✓ Answering questions about library events or other happenings on campus.
Apprehensions about seeking research consultations are the very reasons to book a consultation:
✓ It’s a myth that you should already know how to do research - every project is different and will require different approaches and may require different resources than you are used to using
✓ You can get individual assistance with your research, right when you need it most
✓ It isn’t a bother and we are happy to help
