At the University of Winnipeg (U of W), Ready Set Go workshops help teach students the skills to find academic sources.

Students can face a lot of trouble when writing papers, from using too many cliches, overwhelming a paper with information and letting typos ruin their papers, according to an article written on the Skills You Need website.

Julia Vincent, a current U of W student, says she doesn’t know much about the Ready Set Go workshops but has heard of them. Vincent says knowing how to find and use sources in academic research is important for students.

“There is so much information out there, especially on the internet, so learning how to sift through everything to find accurate and relevant information is a significant help to students who are new to doing university level research,” Vincent says.

Kira Kennedy, another U of W student, acknowledges the workshops are important but hasn’t gone.

“Workshops on using sources (are) extremely beneficial for students who are still having uncertainties, as for a lot of professors, the sourcing makes up a big portion of the grade,” Kennedy says.

The U of W library website states that “Once you’ve found one or two relevant sources, the research conversation around your topic will start to open up and become more clear.”

The U of W website also has tips for students about how to find sources. For example, they post information on how to use a table of contents and an index.

The U of W library has a lot of resources for students to use to aid them in writing papers and finding quality information, including  hundreds of thousands of books, articles and journals in their collection, a journal title search, subject encyclopedias, peer-reviewed journals, DVDs and the interlibrary lending program with other universities.

Students can find more information about what they can access in the U of W collections online or by visiting the library.

Library language, or the classification systems, in libraries come in different shapes and forms.

The most common English-speaking is the Dewey Decimal System (DDS), which is also used by the Winnipeg Public Libraries. Other systems that exist are the Library of Congress (LOC), which is used in libraries like the U of W, and Colon Classification (CC).

Kennedy says that library language can be confusing until you learn it, then it becomes a second language.

“I am very comfortable using library language, as many of my courses have done mini workshops on how to use the library to the fullest advantage,” Kennedy says.

Vincent says she is fairly good at finding what she’s looking for, but she hasn’t mastered library language.

U of W Library hours are Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10:45 p.m., Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and Sundays 12 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. from January 2018 until April 2018.

Students can find help with sources at the Ready Set Go workshops at the University of Winnipeg library led by Ian Fraser on Wednesdays from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. for the winter term. Students can register online for the workshops by heading to the U of W Library website.

Published in Volume 72, Number 20 of The Uniter (March 8, 2018)