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 17th February 2025 09:30-12:30
A practical session 180-minute workshop where participants will work on searches for their review across multiple databases. Librarians from the Bodleian Health Care Libraries will be on hand to demonstrate online tools for facilitating the process and give practical advice on refining individual search strategies. By the end of this classroom-based session you will be able to:
- Improve a search strategy that you are working on
- Adapt the search across multiple databases
- Use tools such as Yale MeSH Analyzer, Polyglot and the SR Accelerator to improve your searches
- Describe alternative methods for identifying references, including citation tracking
- De-duplicate results from multiple database searches
- Start screening results for inclusion in your review
- Report your search methods according to PRISMA-Search
Format: Classroom-based. Time for participants to work on their own searches with advice from a librarian. Explore tools that streamline the review process following a presentation with demonstrations.
Location: Radcliffe Science Library, Seminar Room, Parks Road, OX2 3QP
Monday 17th February 2025 10:00-12:00
iSkills: Unlocking critical thinking for undergraduates
Enhance your critical thinking and research skills in this practical workshop designed for undergraduate students. Learn to question assumptions, analyse sources critically, and develop information discovery and search strategies that will set you apart in your academic studies. By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Describe what critical thinking is
- Understand a critical thinking method
- Apply the method to your academic work
- Explain the fundamentals of conducting research, including how to evaluate information sources in SOLO
Format: An interactive teacher-led online session.
Location: Microsoft Teams
Monday 17th February 2025 14:00-15:00
Open Scholarship: Forum of open scholarship
During this forum speakers from Bodleian Open Scholarship Support and across Oxford will discuss current changes in the field of open scholarship. Including subjects like data, open access, open monographs, copyright and more. It is advised that attendees of the forum have previously attended the Fundamentals and Logistics courses to improve understanding.
Format: An online presentation with time to get answers to your questions
Location: Microsoft Teams
Monday 17th February 2025 15:00-16:00
iSkills for Medicine: An introduction to designing a conference poster
Are you planning to present a poster at an upcoming conference, meeting or symposium? This introductory session will provide you with some top tips on how to create a poster presentation which will help you to communicate your research project and data effectively. There will be guidance on formatting, layout, content, use of text, references and images, as well as advice on printing and presenting your poster. This session will also provide help with locating resources such as templates, free-to-use images and poster guidelines. By the end of this online session you will be able to:
- evaluate the effectiveness of templates, formatting, text and images;
- plan, prepare and present your poster.
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 18th February 2025 10:00-12:00
iSkills: Managing research data and Data Management Planning (DMPs)
Good research data management is a vital component of academic practice. Part of this is the principle that the data used to develop the arguments and outcomes of your research should be effectively stored and managed during a project, preserved for the future and – where possible – shared with other academics. This session introduces the University’s research data policy and outlines the practical impact this will have on your work. The services available at Oxford to assist you will be outlined. This session is not only essential during your current studies but will be invaluable if you plan to continue in research as a career. Topics to be covered include:
- Common dangers and pitfalls of digital data
- Key principles of RDM and organising your data effectively
- Producing a data management plan
- Institutional, funder and publisher requirements
- Issues around preserving data and cybersecurity
- ORA-Data, GitHub and other preservation services
- Sharing thoughts and insights about the potential of data management in your own field
- Accessing Oxford based tools for research data management
Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with discussion.
Location: Social Science Library, Information Skills Training Room, Manor Road, OX1 3UQ
Tuesday 18th February 2025 13:00-14:00
iSkills: Research metrics and citation analysis tools: Part 3 researcher metrics
In this session we will examine metrics for individual researchers. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn about the researcher h-index and its limitations. You will be introduced to additional metrics tools such as author beamplots which help to contextualise a researcher’s output over time. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with:
- Accessing citation data for specific researchers on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar
- Understanding how the h-index is calculated and its inherent limitations
- Creating an ORCID number to help track all your own research outputs
- The importance of research outputs beyond journal and conference papers when assessing a researcher’s impact
Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with practical exercises.
Location: Radcliffe Science Library, Seminar Room, Parks Road, OX2 3QP
Tuesday 18th February 2025 14:30-16:00
iSkills: Discovering archives and modern manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries
This workshop will introduce participants to the key catalogues and finding aids for post-1800 archives and manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries. In particular the session will focus on Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts, the online catalogue for post-1800 archives and manuscripts. The session will also briefly introduce some of the major UK online gateways for discovering archives. The topics covered include:
- How to use the Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts online catalogue
- Other printed archive catalogues in the Bodleian Libraries
- Major subject areas covered in Bodleian archives and modern manuscripts
- National archive gateways
The workshop will include a question and answer session with Bodleian archivists.
This session does not cover:
- Pre-1800 manuscripts (Medieval and Early Modern periods).
- Manuscripts in Middle Eastern, Semitic, and Asian languages
Format: Classroom-based presentation with a question and answer session.
Location: Weston Library Lecture Theatre. Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
Tuesday 18th February 2025 15:00-16:00
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
Tuesday 18th February 2025 16:00-17:00
iSkills for Medicine: Literature searching – getting started
Puzzled by PICO? Daunted by databases? Baffled by Boolean? This one-hour online introductory class will offer top tips and advice on how to find literature to answer a research question. No prior experience necessary! Together, we will break down a question into the PICO format, put together a structured search, and try it out in PubMed. By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Explain what structured searching is, and when to use it
- Break your research question down into searchable concepts
- Make use of Boolean operators (ANDs/ORs) in your structured searches
Please note that we also run this workshop online. Please check the iSkills course listing for availability.
Format: Online teacher-led presentation with opportunities for questions
Location: Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 19th February 2025 11:30-13:00
iSkills: Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th-21st centuries
Newspapers are a valuable resource for researching not only news but also many other aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. In this session we will introduce key online sources of news and how to make best use of them. The focus will be on historical and contemporary newspapers from the 17th century across most countries of the world. After the session participants will understand:
- the value of newspapers in research
- the difficulties of using newspapers in research and effective search techniques, and be able to use a range of sources for searching and reading:
- historical newspapers
- contemporary newspapers
- historical audio-visual news sources
Format: Online teacher-led presentations and live demonstrations (with audience interaction and opportunities for questions via chat function and follow up one-to-one help).
Location: Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 19th February 2025 13:30-16:30
Zotero is a reference management tool that helps you build libraries of references and add citations and bibliographies to word processed documents using your chosen citation style. This classroom-based session covers the main features of Zotero and comprises a 45-minute presentation followed by practical exercises at the computers. You can leave at any point once you have tried out the software, and do not have to stay until the end. Please note, we also run an online Zotero workshop. Please check the iSkills course listing for availability. The learning outcomes for this classroom-based session are to:
- Create a Zotero library and add references to it
- Edit and organise references in your Zotero library
- Add in-text citations and/or footnotes to your word processed document
- Create bibliographies
- Understand how to sync your Zotero library across multiple computers
- Understand how to share your Zotero library of references
Format: Classroom-based. Presentation with practical exercises.
Location: Thames Suite, IT Services, 7-19 Banbury Road, Oxon, OX2 6NN
Thursday 20th February 2025 14:30-16:30
EndNote is a desktop-based reference management tool for Windows and Mac users, which helps you build libraries of references and insert them into your Word document as in-text citations or footnotes and automatically generate bibliographies. This online 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 that we also run a face-to-face 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: Live interactive session with Q&A
Location: Microsoft Teams