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A quick reminder to librarians preparing their information literacy programmes, Web pages and subject guides for the new academic year ... The RDN Virtual Training Suite offers 60 free subject guides to using the Internet for research. The tutorials are being regularly updated and maintained by Resource Discovery Network with help from librarians and lecturers UK-wide. The tutorials are designed to be used as part of an information literacy programme, either as a resource to base a workshop around or as a free-standing tutorial. There’s a tutorial for most of the subjects covered in UK universities and colleges, with titles ranging from to “Internet Chemist to “Internet Economist”. They are free to access from: http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk Popular sections are: - a guide to key free & subscription Web sites - a guide to Internet search techniques & tools - hints on evaluating results from a Google search - interactive quizzes giving formative feedback Internet research skills are increasingly recognized as an important component of the wider information literacy curriculum. Students arriving at university or college are often familiar with using the Internet, perhaps for school homework, shopping or leisure, but they won’t be familiar with using the Internet to support higher or further education. These tutorials offer an introduction to using the Internet for research at these levels. Concerns have also been highlighted amongst academics and information professionals about students finding and referencing poor quality, inappropriate online sources. Also, with so much information available on the Internet, students need more help and guidance than ever before in finding ‘the best of the web’. We hope you will find the tutorials useful. There are some free teaching and training resources available, which you are welcome to adapt for use locally: http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/teachers/ Free posters for each tutorial can be downloaded from: http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/posters/ Or you can email us to order some printed fliers. Please tell us of any additions/changes etc you feel would make these tutorials more useful to you, as a teacher, or to your students ? RDN resource are developed “by the community, for the community” and we’d welcome your suggestions. You can email us at: [log in to unmask] _____________________________________________________________ Emma Place, RDN Training Manager Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) University of Bristol, 8-10 Berkeley Square Bristol BS8 1HH Tel: 0117 928 7183 Email: [log in to unmask]