Zahnow Library - Library Instruction Services

Library Instruction primarily serves Saginaw Valley State University's students and faculty. It strives to enhance research skills and awareness through the use of discovery tools and databases.  In addition, we welcome and invite local-area high schools to schedule a research skills class focused on a junior-senior level high school research assignment. Please contact me and I will be happy to customize a session to meet your specific needs. For more information, contact Matt Buckley, Head of Research & Instruction Services at mjbuckl1@svsu.edu or at 989.964.2844.

• Sessions can be scheduled by either contacting your library liaison or by completing a library instruction request form.
• Library instruction can occur in the library's Z-111 active learning lab, the instructor's classroom or online.
• It is recommended that the library instruction be scheduled for a date and time that aligns with a specific point of learning need, taking into account when students will be practicing relevant skills or working on assignments.
• To ensure for effective collaboration and adequate preparation, please provide at least one week’s notice when requesting a library instruction session.
• In addition to providing library instruction in-person and online, librarians can also create tutorials and research guides tailored to a course's specific need.

As a service of the Research Services Department at the Melvin J. Zahnow Library Saginaw Valley State University, the library instruction sessions strive to enhance the learner's ability to find, evaluate, and use knowledge effectively and efficiently, which is made available through a variety of formats, tools, and modes of access. Through guided visual demonstrations, lectures, workshops, orientations, and interactive "hands-on" sessions, students learn to develop and effectively apply proficient library research strategies to retrieve assignment-specific print and/or electronic information resources, in order to successfully complete course assignments