Bodleian iSkills workshops aim to develop your skills in information discovery and scholarly communications, covering a variety of resources across a wide range of disciplines. They are primarily aimed at University of Oxford students and staff. Some workshops take place face-to-face, whilst others are run online.
The workshops are FREE but online booking is essential. A list of the sessions taking place this term can be found on the iSkills Workshops webpage.
Monday 12th May 2025 09:30-12:00
iSkills: Using AI to find, analyse, and share information sources
Curious about using AI to find research papers? Not sure how to properly reference GenAI and avoid plagiarism? This beginner-friendly workshop introduces three GenAI tools (ChatGPT, Elicit, and Perplexity), showing how they can support information discovery and analysis. Designed for those new to AI, this practical session will allow you to independently experiment with these tools and participate in group discussions to explore their strengths, limitations, and suitability for different tasks. By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Explain what AI means and some key terms
- Differentiate between several categories of AI tools
- Describe how some GenAI tools can be used to discover information, including their strengths, limitations, and best practices
- Critique GenAI tools and their outputs at an introductory level using evaluative criteria
- State the University’s policies on AI, and avoid plagiarism by creating citations for AI-generated content
Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with practical exercises, group discussions, and an opportunity for questions and answers at the end of the session.
Location: IT Services, 7-19 Banbury Road, Oxon, OX2 6NN
Monday 12th May 2025 13:00-14:00
iSkills: Searching for patents and standards
Patents and standards are a valuable source of technical information relevant to the fields of engineering, materials sciences, and more. Together, they provide approved rules and guidelines whilst helping to protect inventions and innovative ideas. They can, however, be tricky to find. Join this session to find out more about what patents and standards are, why they might be useful for your research and how to find them in specific databases. By the end of this session, you will:
- Know what a patent is and where to find it
- Know what a standard is and where to find it
- Be able to reference patents and standards
Format: Online teacher-led presentation with discussion.
Location: Microsoft Teams
Monday 12th May 2025 13:30-16:30
EndNote is a desktop-based reference management tool for Windows and Mac users. It helps you to build libraries of references and insert them into Word documents as in-text citations or footnotes, and to automatically generate bibliographies. This classroom-based introduction to EndNote is open to all University of Oxford students, researchers and staff and teaches you how to use the software so that you can effectively manage your references. Please note we also run an online EndNote workshop. Please check the iSkills course listing for availability. The workshop will cover:
- What EndNote can do for you
- Adding references to EndNote from a range of sources
- Managing your references in an EndNote library
- Adding in-text citations and/or footnotes to your essays and papers
- Creating bibliographies
Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with practical exercises.
Location: IT Services, 7-19 Banbury Road, Oxon, OX2 6NN
Tuesday 13th May 2025 09:00-10:00
Are you looking to learn about the ways in which to transmit scientific ideas and make your research accessible to a non-specialist audience through a variety of mediums? This session will serve as an introduction to science communication and how it can be successfully incorporated into our roles. By the end of this session you will be able to:
- define science communication and provide a list of examples;
- explain why science communication is important for both our CPD and the public;
- list ways in which we can all get involved in science communication.
Please note that we also run this workshop in-person. Please check the iSkills course listing for availability.
Format: Online teacher-led presentation with opportunities for questions.
Location: Microsoft Teams
Tuesday 13th May 2025 10:00-11:45
iSkills: Preparing for your literature review in the Social Sciences
Get ready to understand the stages of your literature review search process by using your own research questions to build a successful search and apply it to a range of library resources. By the end of the session you will be able to:
- Build a successful search strategy
- Use a range of bibliographic databases and search tools in the social sciences
- Source highly cited papers relevant to your research
- Set up alerts for newly-published papers on your topic
Format: Online teacher-led presentations and live demonstrations (with opportunities for questions via the chat function and follow up one-to-one help).
Location: Microsoft Teams
Tuesday 13th May 2025 10:00-11:30
Open Scholarship: Logistics of open scholarship
The second in a duo of courses (attendees should attend the Fundamentals course prior to Logistics) that will cover the logistics of researching, publishing, and locating open scholarship resources and tools at the University of Oxford. Subjects include:
- What is the Oxford University Research Archive?
- Depositing work into ORA via Symplectic Elements
- Depositing data into ORA-data
- Applying for one of Oxford’s APC block grants
- Registering or connecting your ORCID
- How to be included in the rights retention pilot
- Locating and checking funder policies
Ideally the ‘Fundamentals of Open Access’ course will have been attended. If you’re not in a position to attend this course you can find similar information in our e-learning package to work through prior to attending Logistics.
Format: Online presentation with time to get answers to your questions.
Location: Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 14th May 2025 12:00-13:00
iSkills: Research metrics and citation analysis tools: Part 2 article metrics
In this session we will examine article level metrics. We will discuss how citation counting can help identify influential papers in particular fields and how altmetrics provide a different perspective on research output. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn how to locate different article metrics. The session will also allow you to appreciate the limitations of different metrics and the importance of their cautious interpretation. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with:
- Using Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to track and count citations to papers and individual researchers
- Measuring impact using altmetrics
- Understanding how to contextualise metrics against other, similar papers in a field
- The limitations of different metrics
Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with practical exercises.
Location: Radcliffe Science Library, Seminar Room, Parks Road, OX2 3QP
Wednesday 14th May 2025 14:00-15:45
iSkills: Sources for modern global history
An introduction to key archival, printed and electronic resources, such as finding aids, bibliographic resources and primary sources for post-1800 global history. The focus will be on non-European history but will draw predominantly on English and European language resources. This session is classroom-based. After the session you will have an understanding of:
- the different types of material relevant to researching modern global history
- how to search databases, bibliographies and other online resources
- how to search the Bodleian Libraries resource discovery tool for manuscripts and archives
- how to locate relevant archive material elsewhere
Format: In-person presentation with time for questions
Location: Weston Library Lecture Theatre. Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
Wednesday 14th May 2025 15:00-16:30
iSkills for Medicine: Searching systematically
This 90-minute session will cover some more advanced techniques for finding medical literature to answer a research question. We will recap some basics, then demonstrate searching in several medical databases, including using subject headings (MeSH) and the differences between different platforms. By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Explain what subject headings are, and how to use them
- Search for words that appear near to other words
- Take a search from one database into another
- Save a search and document it
Format: Online teacher-led presentation with opportunities for questions
Location: Microsoft Teams
Thursday 15th May 2025 09:30-11:00
iSkills: Keeping up to date with research
An online introduction to using alerts to keep up to date with new research and save you time. A combination of presenter-led instruction and the opportunity for participants to set up email alerts to receive notifications for publications in their field of research. We invite you to send any questions you have in advance to usered@bodleian.ox.ac.uk for the instructors to cover in the session. There will also be opportunities to ask questions in the class. The workshop will cover:
- How email alerts can help you
- Setting up alerts on your favourite databases and other platforms for new content in your field
- Managing your alerts
Format: Online presenter-led instruction with opportunity for participants to set up email alerts.
Location: Microsoft Teams
Friday 16th May 2025 10:00-11:00
In this 60-minute online workshop you will be introduced to the methodologies and principles underpinning the conduct of literature searches for systematic reviews, scoping reviews and other evidence reviews. The session will cover:
- Formulating a focused research question
- Preparing a protocol
- Developing a search strategy to address that research question
- Choosing appropriate databases and search engines
- Searching for grey literature and ongoing studies
- Storing and managing references
- Documenting and reporting your search
Please note, there won’t be an opportunity to search different databases during this session. For practical help on searching databases, please have a look at the search skills tutorials or check the iSkills course listing for the Searching Systematically workshop.
Format: Online teacher-led presentations with opportunities for questions.
Location: Microsoft Teams