UMass Global Library: Live Workshops

Distinguished Scholar: Researcher Badge Series

The Distinguished Scholar: Researcher Badge Series is open to all current students and staff of UMass Global. These workshops can help familiarize you with the library and teach you how to start your research. If you complete at least four workshops, you will earn a Distinguished Scholar – Researcher Badge.

Library Research Workshops:

• UMass Global Library Overview. Best for new library users. Learn how to navigate the library’s website, start a basic search, and get research assistance.
• Getting Started with Research. Learn tips for doing background research, narrowing your topic, and developing a research question.
• Finding Scholarly Articles. Learn how to identify scholarly sources and where to find them.
• Evaluating Sources. Learn techniques for determining whether the sources you find are relevant to your assignment and how they support your research.
• Advanced Search Techniques. Discover some strategies to make your searches more precise and quickly find the information that is most relevant to your research question.
• Reference Management Tools: Zotero. Learn how to organize, annotate, and format sources using Zotero, which also helps you easily create bibliographies. Zotero is free to use and includes limited free storage space. 

Research and Writing Workshops:

• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography. Learn about the components to include when writing an annotated bibliography and become familiar with the structural format required for this type of paper. 
• How to Incorporate Sources in a Research Paper. Learn tips for writing a research paper and how to seamlessly quote outside evidence in your work.
• APA 7 Formatting & Style Basics. Learn how to meet the standards and expectations of collegiate-level APA formatting and style basics.

Doctoral Student Workshops and Doctoral Research Badge Series

The Doctoral Students Workshop Series is open to students completing a dissertation or scholarly clinical project. If you complete all four workshops you will earn a Doctoral Research Badge.

Doctoral Research Workshops:

• Library Resources for Your Dissertation. Learn how to access specialized resources appropriate for doctoral-level work.
• Research Strategies for Your Dissertation. Rather than spending hours searching with few or no results, discover how to efficiently find the information you need for your dissertation and learn what to do if you’re stuck.
• Conducting Literature Reviews for Your Dissertation. The literature review section of your dissertation demonstrates your understanding of current and historical trends, perspectives, and research in your discipline. Attend this workshop to learn strategies for finding and incorporating sources into your literature review. 
• Reference Management Tools. A reference management tool allows you to easily collect, organize, annotate, and format research material that you find in library databases and on websites. It also enables you to automatically format bibliographies in a variety of styles.  Attend ONE of these options based on your needs:
• Using Zotero. This workshop provides an overview of Zotero, a citation management program that is free to use and includes free limited storage space.
• Using EndNote. This workshop provides an overview of EndNote, a citation management program that has a subscription fee and is required for some courses at UMass Global.