Skip to Main Content

Home

Drake student using books and a laptop

Research Support

Cowles Library supports student learning and research skills. Our subject experts can guide you to the resources that are most relevant and useful to your research topic. To help get you started, or to take your research to the next level, schedule a one-on-one consultation with a subject expert.

We can also connect you to the most useful databases, journals, books, and other resources for your topic through our curated Research Guides. If you need tools, techniques, and guidance to strengthen your study skills, we offer those, too.

As a responsible researcher and scholar, you need to cite your sources. Our guide to citation styles and recommended citation management tools will help you find, use, and manage references for your papers and assignments.

Teaching Support

In addition to teaching our own courses, library faculty are available to teach information literacy skills in any course. We can tailor the topic to your specific needs, from getting started with the research process to evaluating online source to the ethical use of information. Visit our Information Literacy Expertise section or connect with your Librarian Liaison to learn how we can help.

We can also assist you with identifying and connecting your students to more affordable course materials. Streamline learning with Course Reserves by placing textbooks, articles, and multimedia resources on reserve, ensuring students have the resources they need to excel in your courses. Make college more affordable for your students by finding Open Access (OA) and Open Educational Resources (OER) textbook alternatives (we can help!).

The library has a number of resources to help through the process of publishing your research and other scholarly work. Learn more about your rights as an author, find out how to improve your academic writing, and explore OA publishing options.