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New students

The purpose of this guide is to introduce to all new students quick and practical information on how to access, use the library services and get help

 

Library orientation, training sessions & support

 

What's on this page?

 

UOB libraries bring new expectations to your researching abilities. Our professional staff and instructors are here to help you to develop academic and information literacy competencies needed to become effective researcher capable of finding, evaluating and using information in independent and self-directed information-seeking environments.

Library Open Doors
Issam Fares Library Learning Center organizes an annual Open Door during the spring semester.  A set of quizzes and challenges are created to engage students and encourage them to learn more about the libraries and their services.    

Library orientation
Library orientation is offered to classes and individuals. Fill in this form to book a tour and get an introduction to the University Libraries facilities, resources and services, and meet your librarian.

One-on-one research assistance
Reference librarian is ready to provide research assistance for a given topic or course.

Here is a sample of questions we typically receive:
  • I have a research assignment and I don't know where to begin.  Can you help suggest a starting point?
  • I have to write a paper on ________, what is a good resource for this topic?
  • I couldn't find anything in the library catalog, where else should I look?

Can you help me come up with a topic for my paper?

Appointments are not required ; just stop by our reference desk or send us an email to reference@balamand.edu.lb.

Tailored instruction and training sessions 
These sessions examines what is expected for a specific assignment or course. These may include:

  • Subject-specific databases (Medicine, Engineering, Education, e​tc.)
  • Citation Styles and referencing tools (APA, MLA, RefWorks)

​Fill in this form to book your session. 

LISP200 course : Information skills and search techniques 

This one-credit required course teaches the fundamentals of information skills and search techniques, and focuses on the use of the different library resources.

Upon the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  • Choose and refine a topic, and effectively draft a research problem;
  • Identify the value and nature of information and how it is organized;
  • Recognize different information sources and use them to satisfy an information need;
  • Search for information published in a variety of formats using research tools including library catalogs, periodicals, subscription databases, reference materials, the web and more;
  • Critically evaluate the content, quality, and credibility of information sources;
  • Define academic integrity with regard to plagiarism and copyright;
  • Cite sources using the required citation style.