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We provide face-to-face and online training and support for your library skills and information literacy development.
Whether it's learning how to find books on shelves or getting advice on the best resources for your research, we're here to help. Members of library staff are available to assist you, including specialists who can discuss your study and research needs.
- Our Getting Started web pages cover basic information
- Our LibrarySkills @ UCL sessions are bookable workshops covering a range of library and information literacy skills
- Make an appointment with your librarian for individual and tailored support
- Our online learning and guides allow self-directed learning on various topics and include 'Skills in Seconds' videos, which introduce our print and online resources
- Teaching staff can arrange library teaching by our librarians within an academic programme or module to support research-based education and the Connected Curriculum
Contact LibrarySkills @ UCL.
Training and support for
Librarians offer professional services and advice to support your learning and research activities at UCL. Dedicated subject specialists are the first point of contact for all students. Contact the relevant librarian or library with queries or to make an appointment.
We offer:
- Library orientations at the start of session, on request, and self-guided tours
- Face to face advice in our libraries
- Information online via our Getting Started web pages or via our Online learning and guides page
- 'Skills in Seconds' - online videos to introduce you to our print and online resources
- Advice on your literature search strategies
- In depth instruction sessions to help you: identify the best resources in your subject; keep up to date by setting alerts to find new research in your subject; with advice on reference management and plagiarism
- Links to course material in ReadingLists @ UCL
- Special services for researchers
UCL Libraries offer a wide range of services to support your teaching and research activities. Dedicated subject specialists are the first point of contact for departmental and faculty staff, and can:
- Provide advice on embedding information literacy teaching in your modules or programmes to support research-based education and the Connected Curriculum
- Deliver teaching for your students tailored to your subject area
- Help you create online reading lists using ReadingLists @ UCL
In addition to scheduled library skills sessions offered throughout UCL’s libraries, individual appointments or group training sessions on a variety of topics may be arranged to help develop your skills, including:
- UCL Library inductions and orientations
- Scoping a research project – searching for similar research in progress in the UK and beyond
- Literature searching – developing advanced search strategies to ensure comprehensive literature retrieval
- Systematic reviews or large research projects – designing comprehensive search strategies
- Keeping up to date – setting up alerts to keep abreast of new research in your field
- Reference management and citing references
- Publishing – including advice on publishing Open Access and using open access sources
- Using the UCL Research Publications Service to keep your publications data up-to-date and uploading documents to UCL Discovery
- Assessing the impact of research – using citation metrics
For further advice and information, or to arrange an appointment, please contact the relevant member of library staff or library, or visit the Teaching and Learning Services or Research Support webpages.
UCL biomedical and health libraries offer training and services to NHS staff at UCL's associated NHS Trusts to support you in patient care, clinical audit and guideline development, keeping up to date, research or teaching activities. Contact your library for further information on any of these services or to arrange an individual appointment.UCL biomedical and health libraries offer training and services to NHS staff at UCL’s associated NHS Trusts to support you in patient care, clinical audit and guideline development, keeping up to date, research or teaching activities. Contact your library for further information on any of these services or to arrange an individual appointment.
Further information on membership, resources and additional services to NHS staff is available on the NHS pages.
Skills training
Skills training takes place on a group or individual basis. Sessions may be timetabled or arranged on demand. In addition to sessions offered throughout UCL’s libraries, we also offer sessions specifically targeted at NHS staff. These include:
- Library inductions and orientations
- Searching databases available to NHS staff such as Medline, Embase, Cinahl, PsycINFO
- Searching evidence-based resources and clinical decision tools eg. NICE Evidence, The Cochrane Library, UpToDate and Best Practice
- Support for searching for systematic reviews
- Critical appraisal skills and journal club support
- Reference management and bibliographic software
Online learning
Tutorials on searching Explore and medical databases (Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) and using EndNote, provided by the UCL Great Ormond Institute of Child Health Library.
A series of short modules to guide healthcare workers through the literature searching process is available from e-Learning for Healthcare. The training is suitable for all levels.
Upcoming training sessions
For full information on upcoming sessions at your library, see the webpages for that library.
Literature searching
We can assist you with literature searches to ensure you are searching the correct resources effectively. Some libraries also offer literature searching services where we will undertake searches for you.
Individual support
Arrange an individual tailored consultation at your library to get support for all your information needs.