Library Help Centre: Services for Students

Whether you have come to college straight from school or from a different country or after some years in work or raising a family, you may find that it differs in many ways from any studying you’ve done before. The Library Help Centre is here to help you find your feet and to develop the skills you need to succeed in whatever challenges you face throughout your course. We provide a professional, friendly and free service, working with students in all disciplines and at all levels of academic study, from undergraduate to PhD.

GET BETTER GRADES!

The Library Help Centre is located on the ground floor, just outside the entrance to the library. We offer one-to-one and small group support that focuses on helping you to become independent learners as part of your National College of Ireland experience

We provide tailored and personalised support to meet your needs by helping you to:

find information for your assignments

structure and present your assignments in the ways that your lecturers expect

get a better understanding of referencing and how to use it in your assignments

understand how to write and research literature reviews

With our guidance, you can develop your skills for study success and help yourself to better grades!

WHO USES THE LIBRARY HELP CENTRE?

The Library Help Centre is for all students; typically students visit the Library Help Centre if:

They are already getting good grades, but want to move up to the next level

They would like help in understanding lecturer feedback to improve their next assignment

They want to know how to improve their referencing

They are finding it difficult to find information for their assignments

They want to understand what resources are available to them through the library

They want to save time in searching for information

We do…

• Offer our service to all students enrolled at the National College of Ireland
• Try to advise and guide you so that you feel more confident and independent in your studies
• Try to highlight areas where you can improve and help you to recognise these yourself in the future
• Aim to supply you with transferable skills that you can then adopt in all of your coursework
• Give you personalised and tailored support specific to your own needs
• Provide flexible hours to accommodate all students who want to use our support
• Expect you to take some notes in order to get the best out of your appointment
• Expect you to contact us as early as possible if you’re not going to be able to make your appointment

We don’t…

• Do your work for you
• Offer an ongoing proof-reading service; we help you recognise types of errors that need improvement so you can more easily recognise these for yourself going forward
• Expect you to follow any advice that differs from that given by your lecturers; the final word is always with the person who is marking your work
• Provide a detailed session without a pre-arranged appointment; it is for your benefit and ours that we have time to prepare for a personalised and tailored session specific to your needs
• Grade your papers; we are an independent and confidential service available to help you with your coursework and studies
• Provide a plagiarism checking service but we do provide advice that will help you include information from other sources without plagiarising

During term time we offer one-off referencing workshops during the year. While there is a taught element to these sessions, they are driven by the queries and concerns of those in attendance and we will discuss and focus on the areas that concern you most. The next referencing classes are scheduled as follows - (to be announced when confirmed)