GOTHENBURG UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
AND LANGUAGE SUPPORT AT THE
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Information Literacy & Academic Writing
Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Human Rights Policy and Practice
2015-2017
Library Introduction / Scholarly Communication
The session starts with a short introduction of the University Library and its resources that will give
the student tools to navigate the library website and catalogue and learn how to locate relevant
literature. This is followed by a presentation and discussions about the nature of scholarly
communication. Particular emphasis will be given to understanding how to identify different kinds of
scholarly publications and how to evaluate them.
26th of August 11.30-12.30 (Studietorget Campus Linné)
The Information Seeking Process
The key to be successful and efficient when searching for scholarly
information is to have a well-defined search strategy. How do we break
down a topic or a general research question and formulate search questions
for search engines, databases and library catalogues? And based on our
information need, how do we identify relevant sources?
This session will take the students through the information seeking process
and its different stages and also introduce them to relevant databases where
they will be able to use different search techniques to locate scholarly
information. Referring to the previous session the students will be given
instructions to locate and evaluate a number of different publication types on
a specific subject.
10th of September 13.00-15.30 (Computer Room 308, Annedal Seminar)
Academic Writing 1
In this seminar, we will approach academic writing from a textual perspective mainly.
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What signifies a successful paragraph?
How can we create a text which is maximally efficient in communicating its message?
In connection to this, we look at how we as readers can approach a text in the most efficient way by
using different reading techniques. Finally, we touch upon referencing techniques and on how to avoid
plagiarism.
17th of September 10.15-12.00 (Room 419, Annedal Seminar)
Citation databases / Zotero
One way of evaluating the impact of scholarly information is to see how many other researchers have
cited a particular publication. Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar are citation databases
where we can trace both references and citations to find influential works and other related
publications. Again we will be referring briefly to the first session about scholarly communication and
talk about impact factor and H-index but will mainly focus on the practical use for the students of
these resources.
The session also includes a presentation of the reference management software Zotero where the
students will be given the chance, if they bring their own computers, to start building their own
reference library.
22nd of September 10.00-12.00 (Computer Room 308, Annedal Seminar)
HUDOC / UN Documentation
Practical workshop focusing on HUDOC, a database providing
access to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, and
UN documentation, United Nations collection of resolutions,
decisions and voting records.
Demonstrations and exercises on how to find UN resolutions and how to locate voting records to find
out how the General Assembly voted. In HUDOC the students will learn how to find legal documents
and press releases on violations against different articles in the European Convention on Human
Rights.
6th of October 10.00-12.00 (Computer Room 308, Annedal Seminar)
Search Support
A short recap of session 2 and 3 but mainly time for the students to work with their own information
seeking strategy and search process. Two librarians will guide and help students with their individual
information seeking.
15th of October 10.00-12.00 (Computer Room 308, Annedal Seminar)
Academic Writing 2
How formal should our academic English be? How do we use commas and semicolons? What is a
complete sentence? In this seminar, academic writing is explored from the perspective of appropriate
vocabulary, punctuation and grammar. We also take a look at oral presentation techniques.
20th of October 10.15-12.00 (Room 419, Annedal Seminar)