Information Literacy

Information literacy is the set of skills required to identify, retrieve, organize, and analyze information, to effectively complete research, and it’s a prevalent aspect of higher education.  In fact, it is an essential lifelong qualification.

It includes a knowledge of the services available through a library, an understanding of the array of resources available, a knowledge of how information is organized and, through this, an understanding of the best means of finding it.

Through workshops, seminars, online participation and one-to-one consultations with a Librarian, you will be able to

  1. Define & articulate your information needs and identify potential information sources.
  2. Select the most appropriate tools to retrieve relevant information and construct an effective search strategy.
  3. Examine and compare information and sources to determine accuracy, authority, reliability, timeliness, validity, viewpoint or bias, and suitability for their information needs.
  4. Understand issues related to censorship, copyright, intellectual property, plagiarism, privacy and security to obtain, store, use and disseminate information responsibly.
  5. Become self-reliant in the research field and learn to apply your skills in the long term in personal and professional development.

Our Instructions include but are not limited to:

Introduction to Library Research:

Learn how to navigate in the Library: collection / resources / tools / services / search strategy.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will be able to identify their information needs, format a successful search strategy and locate the necessary resources.
  • For whom: For undergraduate students who are not familiar with Library resources
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 60’

Note: The content of the Instruction is the same with the ACWR101 Library Instruction – students can always refer to the ACWR101 LibGuide for brief information on various aspects of ACWR

Advanced Library Research:

Advanced research in a specific field of study.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will practice with advanced search strategy in order to effectively locate resources in their major. At the end they will be able to identify the most comprehensive sources in a specific scientific field and will become more familiar with search techniques.
  • For whom: For third year and senior undergraduate students and/or graduate students who want to improve their research skills.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 60’
  • Note: The content of the Instruction is the same with the ACWR10X Library Instruction – students who attend the ACWR10X course have already covered this.

New Graduate Students Library Information Session:

Start your research with library resources.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will become familiar with the Library resources, tools and services and will learn how to conduct an effective search strategy in order to locate the material they need.
  • For whom: For newcomer graduate students who have no prior knowledge of the Library
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 80’

Google Scholar Search Tips in 30 Minutes:

Tips for searching Google Scholar, Google Scholar Metrics and exporting from search results to a Reference management tool (e.g. Endnote)

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will become familiar with Google Scholar and the various tools it offers, in order to advance their research.
  • For whom: For third year and senior undergraduate students and/or graduate students who want to improve their research skills.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 30’

Citation Counts, h-Index, topic trends:

Information about the metrics used to evaluate a source’s performance in the sciences and social sciences. What are the most commonly-used metrics (e.g. Impact Factor, h-index).  Modules and features within Google Scholar, the Web of Science, Scopus and Scival. What are the most researched topics currently?

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will become familiar with Scholar,  the Web of Science, Scopus and Scival, in order to advance their research.
  • For whom: For graduate students and young researchers who want to become familiar with bibliometrics and to be able to locate trend topics for their research.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 80’

Researcher Profiles - Become visible among other Researchers:

Name disambiguation is common to people sharing similar data sets.  In the case of researchers, this can diminish one’s visibility.  ORCID & Publons are two very helpful tools to avoid this situation.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will create their Researcher ID and learn how to manage, sync and share their personal data and research output.
  • For whom: For graduate students and young researchers who are developing their researcher web presence.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 60’

Choosing an Open Access (OA) Journal to publish an Article:

The most suitable Library resources for deciding on an open access journal when it comes to publish a paper. Discover where to look up a journal’s impact factor and article influence score and more.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will become familiar with the OA publications and will learn how to select, among several publications, the ones that are the best for their needs and their research.
  • For whom: For graduate students and young researchers
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 45’

Organize effectively your sources and create citations with the Reference Management tools (e.g. Mendeley, Endnote, etc.)

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will learn how to manage PDF and other research files, build their citations and collaborate with others online.
  • For whom: For undergraduate and/or graduate students who want to learn briefly about different reference management tools in order to choose the one that best covers their needs and preferences.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: 60’
  • Note: For more information about the available reference management tools in the Library, refer to the Reference Management Toolsmenu

Build your survey with Qualtrics:

A tool that makes sophisticated research simple and empowers users to capture customer, product, brand & employee experience insights in one place.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will learn how to make and distribute satisfaction surveys, analyze – export – import a survey and data and generate reports.
  • For whom: For undergraduate and/or graduate students who are conducting research that requires surveys and data analysis.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: 80’

Measuring your research impact: Bibliometric data sources/tools:

Statistical methods to analyse books, journals, articles, and other publications and the measuring of an author’s influence or impact in a specific research field.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will learn how to measure and visualize your research impact using available bibliometric data sources through the Library’s webpage such as Web of Science/Publons, Scopus, SciVal, CiteScore as well as Google Scholar metrics.
  • For whom: graduate students, researchers and Faculty members
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: 60’

Who is talking about your research? - Altmetrics tools:

Metrics and qualitative data that are complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics. They can showcase the attention and influence of your research on social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Mendeley, Blogs and Wikis.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will learn about some altmetrics tools such as Scopus Plum-X, Altmetric and Dimentions, to discover who is referring to their work!
  • For whom: graduate students, researchers and Faculty members
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: 60’

Health Sciences Library Student Orientation:

Learn how to navigate in the Library

  • Learning outcomes: At the end of this training, participants will learn about the use of the library website, the management of library accounts, access to electronic resources off campus, the use of computers, printers, scanners and photocopiers in the Health Sciences Library.
  • For whom: For newly arrived students at the Health Sciences Campus (4th year SOM students, 2nd year SON students)
  • Requirements: You can optionally bring your laptop
  • Duration: 45’

Access to Evidence-Based Resources:

Use of Evidence-Based Medicine and Nursing Resources

  • Learning Outcomes: Participants will be informed about various evidence-based resources and will be able to practice the use of them in their research.
  • For whom: For fourth year students of the SOM and second year students of the SON and / or graduate students who wish to have more detailed information about evidence-based resources
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: appr. 60 ’

Nursing Information Literacy:

Scope, content and layout of information systems, as well as effective approaches to information access from an information access system.

  • Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn where to look for research literature and other sources of evidence at all stages of the research process. At the end of the instruction they will have practiced on how to obtain primary / secondary quantitative / qualitative data and how to organize the information they will use during their research.
  • For: For graduate students in Nursing
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for practical work
  • Duration: 90’

Clinical Information Resources:

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will be able to practice with the information sources they can use in the clinic.
  • For whom: For fourth year students of the SOM and second year students of the SON
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice
  • Duration: 30’

The Semahat Arsel Nursing Education and Research Center (SANERC): Library Training in Nursing Courses

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will develop literature search skills, through access to and practice with free nursing information resources. Eventually they will be able to use these skills in the institutions they work for.
  • For whom: For SANERC trainees
  • Requirements: Provided by SANERC.
  • Duration: 90’

iThenticate: Plagiarism, Intrusion, Similarity:

iThenticate is plagiarism detection software that is designed to be used by researchers to screen written work for originality.  Koç University has campus-wide license to help faculty, staff and students ensure they properly cite previously published work. iThenticate is designed for use in the context of writing theses and dissertations, preparing manuscripts for publication in academic/professional journals, and submitting proposals for research funding.

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will learn to easily upload and scan documents, manuscripts, research and other professional works into iThenticate which compares the work against 14 billion web pages and 110 million content items from leading academic publications.
  • For whom: For Graduate students, Researchers and Faculty members
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice. If you don’t have a iThenticate account, send an account request to the iThenticate admin (turnitin@ku.edu.tr)  using the KU email (ex. name, surname and e-mail address [*****@ku.edu.tr])
  • Duration: 60’

Preventing plagiarism with Turnitin:

Turnitin is an originality checking and plagiarism prevention service used by students and faculty that encourages best practices for using and citing other people’s written material.  Koç University has campus-wide license to Turnitin (Turnitin.com) for unlimited submissions of student papers for plagiarism detection. Turnitin can be used within Blackboard, or at https://www.turnitin.com/

  • Learning outcomes: Participants will learn how to use the complete web-based service, to manage the process of submitting and tracking papers electronically, providing faster feedback to students
  • For whom: For Faculty members & Graduate Schools Administrative Staff
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice. If you don’t have a Turnitin account, send an account request to the Turnitin admin (turnitin@ku.edu.tr)  using the KU email (ex. name, surname, e-mail address [*****@ku.edu.tr])

Literature Review Instructions (discipline based)

  • Learning outcomes: In this literature review training, you will get familiar with library services and resources for your learning and research, access to full-text academic and refereed journal articles/ e-books/ theses, most relevant results for your search terms in your fields, learn database searching and automatic bibliography creation.
  • For whom: For third year and senior undergraduate students and/or graduate students who want to improve their research skills.
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice.
  • Duration: Appr. 60 minutes

Emerging trends and research performance: Scival

  • Learning outcomes: SciVal is an online tool for analysing the research performance (quantity, quality and impact) of 10,000 research institutions and 220 nations worldwide. You will learn how SciVal allows you to visualize your research performance, benchmark relative to peers, develop strategic partnerships, identify and analyze new, emerging research trends, and create uniquely tailored reports in this training. SciVal also helps you assess your institution’s research performance from a variety of perspectives in order to establish, execute and evaluate strategies based on reliable evidence.
  • For whom: Graduate students, researchers and Faculty members
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice.
  • Duration: Appr. 60 minutes

SKL Research Data Management Webinar Series

  • Learning outcomes: Research Data Management (RDM) webinar series aims to introduce KU researchers, PhD students, research administrators and faculty members to the concept, funder requirements, tools of RDM and how to benefit from the Koç University Research Data Repository (KU-RDR).
  • For whom: Graduate students, researchers and Faculty members
  • Requirements: Bring your laptop for hands-on practice.
  • Duration: 4 weeks, appr. 60 minutes each

“If Sources Speak”: Suna Kıraç Library Primary Sources Workshop

Do letters, diaries, photographs speak? Why not if you ask the right question? “If Sources Speak” workshop was prepared by Koç University Suna Kıraç Library which you will have the chance to meet with various primary sources such as letters, pictures, photographs, books and more in the library Join us on a journey through time to get to know library resources, learning how to put primary sources in historical context and what the source “means” for you to research and understand a topic.

  • Learning outcomes: This session introduce primary sources to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students, to explain how primary sources are used in academia, to understand the scientific importance of citations in original research, to explain the differences between primary and secondary sources, to gain the ability to evaluate and question primary sources. Primary sources help students develop critical-thinking skills.
  • For whom: Undergraduate / Graduate Students
  • Requirements: Please bring your own laptops.
  • Duration: 50’min Presentation / 10’min Break / 50’min Practice Session

Remember!

Find our scheduled IL sessions, in the Calendar

You can request an Instruction through Library Trackit.