The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Library conducted an orientation for students about library resources titled “From Draft to Submission: Integrating Library Resource for Comprehensive Research and Writing Success” on 20 September 2024. This orientation was done online via Zoom. More than 480 students registered for the event and about 300 of these were able to participate.
Three resource speakers eagerly shared their knowledge and expertise in this orientation — Mr. Joel Ocier, UPOU University Librarian; Mr. Renz C. Cao and Mr. Jarien G. Galorio, both College Librarians from UP Los Baños. Ms. Danica Salcedo, Research Staff at the UPOU Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, served as the host.
Mr. Ocier started the discussion with “Accessing, Searching, and Evaluating Information Effectively,” where he taught students how to identify and access various information sources, apply effective search strategies, assess source credibility, and familiarize themselves with Library services. He presented the various physical and digital resource collections, database systems, and journal subscriptions that the UPOU Library has access available to all UPOU students. Mr. Ocier also presented the services available at the UPOU Library and the various library catalogs used by the libraries of different CUs, such as ILIB, TUKLAS, and KOHA, which UPOU students may also utilize. Mr. Ocier demonstrated how digital library platforms such as OpenAthens, UPLOAD, and the UPOU Networks can be used using the students’ UP email accounts and shared some strategies to effectively search and filter to obtain information and access to publications they need.
The second speaker is Mr. Cao who tackled “Research Referencing: From Ground Up to Expertise” where he covered the basics of referencing up to the advanced techniques. He highlighted the crucial role of referencing as a fundamental part of scholarly conversation. In his presentation, he explained in detail what citing and referencing means, how this is done, and why it is important. “Referencing is essential for avoiding plagiarism by citing your sources, you ensure that you’re not misappropriating someone else’s work, thereby upholding academic integrity and ethical standards,” he stated. He also presented reference management tools such as Mendeley and Zotero, demonstrated how to use them, and presented some of the best practices for effective referencing. His final advice about referencing includes maintaining consistency across citations, citing AI sources to maintain transparency and integrity, and consulting the Library for guidance.
The last speaker is Mr. Galorio who discussed “Streamlining Research with Turnitin: A Tool for Academic Integrity.” In his presentation, he discussed in detail what plagiarism means and how to avoid this form of dishonesty in academic writing, and presented the tool how to avoid plagiarism – Turnitin. He explained how Turnitin works, its features, and how it is able to check different spectrums of plagiarism in a written work, based on severity and frequency. He also emphasized the importance of properly citing the sources and attributing the original owner for any used reference. He also provided tips on how to determine the types of original work and presented the rules and regulations on student conduct discipline taken from the website of the UPOU Office of Student Affairs. Before he ended, he shared some tips to avoid academic misconduct – search for sources, document and annotate your sources, summarize or synthesize, paraphrase or quote the author, cite your sources, and do the self-checking for originality.
After the presentations was a session where students were able to ask and clarify aspects of the discussion. Before orientation ended, Mr. Ocier repeated his encouragement for the students to take advantage of the library resources to help them in their academic journey, these are accessible to all students.
The library website is currently being redeveloped to better serve the university community. The new website will launched soon. In the meantime, the old website remains accessible through an updated URL: oldlibrary.upou.edu.ph. The UPOU Library is also open Mondays thru Saturdays, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Written by Anna Cañas-Llamas ♦ Edited by Dr. Myra C. Almodiel
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