UNV 101: Miami University Regional Libraries: When to Contact a Librarian

Research librarians are trained to assist students in locating, evaluating, and using information. Students can reach out to a librarian for assistance with:

Designing Research Questions

• Students may not know right away what their research question is or how to narrow it down to something more specific. Research librarians can help with this! Students can make an appointment with a librarian to work on developing or narrowing their topics and theses. 

Finding and Evaluating Information

• Students who may be struggling to find information, or questioning the quality of their sources can work with librarians to create search strategies, workshop keyword creation, and learn about discipline specific research databases that may be useful to their research. Librarians will also work with students on how to evaluate information and determine its quality and credibility. 

Incorporating Information

• Students sometimes find information sources that they are excited about, but do not know how to fully utilize that information to its full potential in their research or assignments. Librarians are available to consult with students during this process and walk them through incorporating research to create original knowledge. 

While librarians are available to help students with incorporating research into their paper’s or assignments, librarians are not writing specialists. We recommend that students who need assistance with writing and editing their assignments reach out to a writing specialist in the Tutoring and Learning Center after meeting with their librarian! 

Citing Information and Academic Integrity

• Most instances of plagiarism are often instances of unintentional plagiarism! If students have questions about properly citing resources in their papers or creating annotated bibliographies or reference pages, they can meet with a librarian to review the citation process for their citation style and ensure they are on track for upholding Miami’s standards of academic integrity.