Graduate Student Immersion

WVU Libraries Graduate Student Library Immersion Program

August 7-9, 2023
Downtown Library

The Graduate Student Library Immersion Program is a three-day intensive workshop designed to improve participants’ research skills with hands-on activities and demonstrations on a variety of resources, methods, tools and topics. The program focuses on addressing participants' research challenges and building community both within and across disciplines. It will be held in person at the Downtown Library and will include a blend of whole-group and concurrent sessions, with participants choosing the concurrent sessions most relevant to their research. 

Subject librarians will be available for individual consultations about participants’ research interests and challenges.

Breakfast, lunch, and refreshments are provided along with a $125 stipend upon successful completion.

Admission to the program is competitive and will be balanced to ensure representation across disciplines. Applications will be evaluated based on the alignment of applicants’ expressed research interests, needs, and challenges with the program’s offerings.

Please contact Alyssa.Wright@mail.wvu.edu with questions.

The application due date is May 30, 2023.

Read the application questions and scoring rubric before applying.

2022 Immersion Program Session Descriptions

Library Essentials

This introductory session aims for broad coverage of key library resources, including interlibrary loan, finding subject-specific databases, study rooms, liaison librarians, the Research Repository, and more.

Managing Information with Zotero

Reference managers help collect, organize, cite, and share research. Zotero is open source, providing 300 mb of free, cloud-based storage while leaving you in control of your data. This session will provide hands-on practice with Zotero's basic features. Concurrent sessions will be offered for PC and Mac users.

Creating and Managing Your Online Scholarly Presence

During this session, you will learn how to build and manage an online scholarly identity. We will look at common platforms for creating scholarly profiles, and tools that allow you to share your research openly and track the impact of your work.

Literature Review

Why and how do you start a literature review? This session will walk through the basic steps of a literature review and demonstrate how tools such as Zotero, a literature review matrix, and subject databases can help.

Dispelling the Myths of Open Access

This workshop will discuss open access vs. traditional publishing venues and will include a section about predatory publishers' practices. Resources that are available to help find appropriate journals in which to publish will be demonstrated, and WVU Libraries' sources of assistance for open access publishing will be outlined.

Information Privilege

This discussion-based session will cover the topics of neutrality and privilege in information systems using an information literacy lens. Participants will be able to identify action steps to redress inequities.

Data Visualization with Excel

Get hands on experience using Microsoft Excel for data analysis and visualization.

Humanities Primary Source Databases

This hands-on session will introduce participants to a variety of primary source databases with access to resources including literature, newspapers, multimedia, images, government information, and other archival materials. Participants will have the opportunity to explore these databases themselves during the session.

Systematic Review

This session will provide an overview of systematic reviews and other evidence synthesis methods and will discuss how systematic reviews are different from traditional literature reviews. Topics addressed include types of systematic reviews, setting your review up for success, and helpful tools and software for your project. By the end of the session, you will be able to identify the differences between a traditional literature review and a systematic review, identify authority organizations for evidence synthesis methods, and identify an appropriate protocol registry for your discipline.

The D.I.Y. Researcher

Learn how to develop your soft skills as a researcher during graduate school using the library platforms; Sage Research Methods and O’Reilly Learning Platform. Learnable skills include designing a project, exploring different types of methods, and selecting the appropriate one for your area of interest, learning analysis and analysis tools, and more.

Locating Primary Data Resources

This session will describe the data landscape and give you tools to learn how to efficiently find data sources to suit your needs. Session will include hands-on exposure to general resources including the data repository, ICPSR.

Archives/Special Collections

This session will cover the what, where, how, and why of primary source research at the WVRHC. In addition to these basics, we will discuss critical approaches to the historical record, namely issues surrounding power and marginalization in the archives.

A Primer in Data Visualization with Tableau

Are you interested in data visualization but don’t know where to start? This workshop is designed to teach new Tableau users how to prepare their data, understand the Tableau interface, create basic visualizations (i.e. bar chart, heat map, etc.), and combine visualizations into a dashboard.

Teaching with Wikipedia

Learn about techniques for using Wikipedia in the classroom, including how to develop assignments that allow students to write for a wide range of audiences by editing, contributing to, or authoring Wikipedia articles while conducting relevant research.

Research Data Management & Basics of File Management

Research Data Management is the process of organizing, documenting, sharing, and preserving the data generated through the course of a research project. You will learn about Research Data Management Plans, and how to share and license your data.