4. Consulting with Librarians
The Harvard College Library offers various types of instruction on finding, using, and managing research materials, from web-based guides to group classes to individual consultations.
Research Guides
There are available online research guides created by librarians for both for specific courses and for broader subject areas. You may want to browse the guides listed on the HCL Research Guides site, including the Course Guide Archive. Many of these guides, and other helpful resources from libraries of other Harvard Faculties (such as Divinity, Education, and Government) are also available from the Harvard Libraries Research Guides site.
Guides to Using Online Research Tools
Both the HCL Research Guides and Harvard Libraries Research Guides site include guides to using specific online research tools. Graduate students may find particularly useful the guide Using Refworks, Endnote, and Other Citation Tools, which will help you compare, consider, and use citation management software to store references and create bibliographies and footnotes. Science Libraries at Harvard is a new unified source of information about Harvard College Library's science collections.
Research Consultations
Schedule a research consultation with a librarian to identify and use the many research tools of the library, and to discuss overall research strategies. To locate a librarian with expertise in your field of study, consult the list of Research Contacts and Library Liaisons.
Research Instruction Sessions
If you are a teaching fellow and would like to set up a research instruction session for your students, please visit the Resources for Instructors page. Librarians can work with you to custom-design library research classes that address the specific goals of your course. Librarians also can create research guides that appear on or are linked to from your course's website, which will link students directly to resources relevant to their assignments