Windward Community College Library: Services for Instructors

The WCC Library offers many services to support instruction, including:

This list is not complete. The Library welcomes all types of collaboration with instructors, so please contact us if you have an idea about how the Library can serve you and your students.

To best assist your students with assignments requiring research or a visit to the Library, please consult with a librarian in advance. Librarians can:

• Help integrate information literacy instruction into assignments and courses. 
• Make the best resources available to meet your students’ information needs.
• Create online pathfinders to guide students to high-quality information for their assignment.
• Embed research resources and tutorials into your online course.
• Help you identify information resources for use in your classes and online learning environment, including books, articles, videos, audio recordings, images and more.

Contact your discipline liaison librarian to discuss any of these possibilities.

The Library offers presentations and learning activities tailored to your specific courses and assignments – and in a variety of learning environments. Please contact us at least a week in advance (two weeks is even better) so we can best prepare to meet your students' needs and learning outcomes. (Note: In support of student learning, your attentive presence and participation are expected during library instruction sessions.)

• For Arts & Humanities courses or topics, contact Ellie Seaton at 235-7439 or emseaton@hawaii.edu
• For Hawaiʻi-related courses or topics, contact Cindy Texeira at 235-7340 or ctex@hawaii.edu
• For Social Sciences courses or topics, contact Sarah Gray at 235-7450 or skgray@hawaii.edu
• For STEM courses or topics, contact Tara Severns at 235-7440 or severns@hawaii.edu  

Here are examples of common library instruction topics, and a rough estimate of the time the topic can take to cover (depending on the learning objectives):

• The College Paper Research Process: An overview of the iterative information processes involved in doing research for an undergraduate paper. (~45-150 min.) 
• Narrowing Topics: Students turn their interests into compelling and manageable research topics with simple focusing techniques. (~15 min.)
• Evaluating Resources: Students practice determining the scope, purpose, point-of-view, authority, and credibility of sources. Focus areas can include:
  • Primary vs. Secondary Sources (~15 min.)
  • Popular vs. Scholarly Articles (~15 min.)
  • Analyzing an Information Source in Detail (~30 min.)
  • Verifying Authority & Credibility (~30 min.)
  • Sponsored, Biased, & Fake news (~20 min.)
• WCC Library Databases: a survey of our digital resources, either in general (and guided by broad interests of the students) or in particular (in-depth exploration of one or two databases), or something in between. (~20-60 min.)
• Google: A tour of under-utilized and less-familiar Google Search features like Google Scholar, Advanced Search, and Image Search, plus tips for getting the best results from any Google search. (~20-60 min.)
• Scholarly Journal Articles: Students learn about different types of scholarly articles and how to find and read them.
• Ebooks: An introduction to electronic book collections available through the WCC Library, Hawaiʻi State Library, and the open Web. (~20-40 min.)
• Citing Sources: An introduction to referencing information sources (APA, MLA, etc.), with emphasis on the importance of source attribution and in-text citation. Resources introduced can include tutorials, models, and tools. (~20-75 min.)
• Annotated Bibliographies: A guided, hands-on exercise in finding an information resource, formatting its bibliography entry, and writing a useful annotation. (~40-70 min.)
• Special Topic Resources: We build and introduce your students to a custom Research Guide for your course or project (~30-70 min.)
• Information Literacy Frameworks: Explore concepts from the ALA's Academic & College Research Libraries: Authority Is Constructed and Contextual; Information Creation as a Process; Information Has Value;  Research as Inquiry; Scholarship as Conversation; Searching as Strategic Exploration  

Use our Reserves service to make supplemental materials and equipment available to your students. You can put personal or library copies of books, articles, videos, and other items on Reserve. You designate whether those materials are available for use within the library only, or can be borrowed for 2 or 7 nights.  (Note: To provide safe access to Reserve materials during the pandemic, the library offers limited scanning of print reserve items.)

See our Course Reserves page for relevant policies, the submission form, and instructions.

We always welcome your suggestions for books, films, and other materials that support your curriculum.

To make a suggestion, please contact your discipline liaison librarian:

Arts & Humanities: Ellie Seaton
Hawaiʻi: Cindy Texeira 
Social Sciences: Sarah Gray
STEM: Tara Severns

The Library also has books on andragogy and other teaching resources.