By Alex Purcell

Colorado State University-Pueblo’s library is a great place to get schoolwork done, but it offers more than just a quiet place to study. There’s a team dedicated entirely to helping students and faculty get research done.

The Research Help Desk has a multitude of resources available to students and faculty to aid in finding credible sources. To educate people about these resources, the Research Help staff often hosts workshops both in and out of the classroom.

“Generally, we get invited to present to English 101 and 102 classes and other classes in majors, particularly when they’re working on research projects, to talk about finding, evaluating and using library resources,” said Betsy Schippers, a librarian who works for Research Help.

Schippers said while classroom visits are very valuable, Research Help felt there was “something missing” from these presentations.

“We don’t have enough time when we’re with students in a classroom setting to actually talk about all the things that would be helpful to them,” she said. “We thought workshops would allow us to spend more time with students in a focused way.”

Research Help mostly visits 100 and 200 level courses, transfer students enrolled in upper-level courses often miss in-class presentations. Research Help offers a half-hour workshop specifically for transfer students to educate them on the resources they have available.

Recent and upcoming topics for workshops include finding articles, citing sources and using online databases such as Google Scholar.

For students who aren’t able to attend a workshop, there are other options. “We intend to make documentation available on the library’s website,” Schipper said. “We’ll make sure we have information from the workshops that students can find later.”

Schipper and her fellow research librarians are also able to meet one-on-one with students for personal consultations. There are five librarians who have “liaison” responsibilities to different majors. This allows for a more personalized and well-informed discussion on useful resources to a specific department.

“We are here to help,” Schipper said. “We want our students to feel comfortable coming to us with questions they have about their research. We will go out of our way to make sure we can help students with their research.

“Sometimes, I think students feel like they’re imposing when they ask us for help,” she said, “but that’s why we’re here.”