Wesleyan University Librarians are dedicated to supporting student learning and research. Librarians collaborate with faculty to help develop the information literacy skills students need to discover, evaluate, and critically engage scholarly material.
Your library liaison can help develop a specific instruction session for your class to provide guidance in the research process or to demonstrate how to use library resources. Please get in touch at least two weeks in advance of desired class visit date so that librarians can appropriately prepare.
Librarians in Special Collections & Archives offer class sessions focused on primary source materials held in our collections. These sessions are tailored to meet the needs of the class, such as the history of the book, or performing effective research using primary sources at Wesleyan and elsewhere.
To arrange for a class session, call (x3864) or email (sca@wesleyan.edu) Special Collections & Archives. Please get in touch at least two weeks in advance of desired class visit date so that SC&A can appropriately prepare.
Our librarians are available to assist your students at all stages of the research process through Personal Research Sessions (PRS). Working with students one-on-one, we help identify useful databases for their topic, select keywords, develop their search strategy, or provide instruction on how to use specialized tools. The Personal Research Session allows students to get hands-on help from a librarian, focusing on the specific questions they're encountering in their research.
Students can schedule a PRS by submitting this form.
The library offers online research guides for each academic discipline at Wesleyan. Students conducting research in a new discipline will benefit from reviewing these guides, which provide information on how to find databases, books, and other materials relevant to conducting research in that discipline.
We have also developed general "how to" guides designed to help students learn essential skills, like finding and evaluating sources, developing an essay topic, or writing a literature review. These resources can be integrated into your syllabus or shared in the classroom to prepare students for upcoming assignments.
If you would like to develop a specialized research guide with information and resources tailored to a course you'll be teaching, please contact your liaison librarian.
Finding Primary Sources:
To learn about primary source materials and how to find them online, see our research guide on the subject here.
Visit our Finding and Using Images guide for:
Wesleyan provides access to a number of video repositories, in additional to our physical VHS & DVD collections, including:
To learn how to find and use these and many other video resources, visit this guide.
A note about streaming: ITS policy prevents streaming any content from personal devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, or phones) to classroom displays through a wireless connection (such as AppleTV). To show library streaming resources in class, use the classroom’s built-in computer or connect your device following these instructions from ITS.
Ebooks are a dynamic and growing segment of the library's scholarly content. Wesleyan currently has access to over a half million titles. They are acquired in large packages or singly from various providers, each with its own interface, rules, and policies, often directly set by publishers. This guide will help you navigate the major types of available ebooks so that you can more easily locate and utilize them for your research.
Wesleyan Library’s Digital Library collections are developed, maintained, and published in support of the research and teaching needs of the campus and the health of the library collection. Collections include:
Learn more about the Wesleyan Library’s Digital Library collections here.
Learning to Create Accessible Files
The SensusAccess e-learning course describes how to convert materials to alternate formats and improve document accessibility. The Center for Faculty and Career Development can assist faculty with creating accessible content for their courses.
Student Accommodations for Accessing Library Materials
Students who require accommodations to use library materials please contact the Accessibility Services office.
Self-Service: Convert Your Files to an Accessible Format with SensusAccess
SensusAccess is a self-service web application that converts documents from text or image-based files into accessible formats, such as searchable PDFs, audio & talking books, Braille, or ebooks. See supported input and output file formats.
SensusAccess is available to current Wesleyan students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Convert your file. The resulting file will be delivered to you via email. Please use your Wesleyan email address when submitting your conversion request.
This service is not recommended for materials containing confidential or private information.
The Research Services department is available to answer all of your copyright, intellectual property, and licensing questions.
Consult our guide to copyright and intellectual property, or contact our Copyright & Permissions Support Specialist:
Joy C. Mlozanowski
jmlozanowski@wesleyan.edu | 860-685-3833
