Throughout the pandemic, the Libraries has remained dedicated to supporting the university research community. With the abrupt turn to virtual and hybrid learning in 2020, the Libraries quickly began organizing a diverse array of workshops and presentations, aimed at helping students and researchers engage with the broader research community, develop their research skills, and make progress on their projects.
The workshops were developed with the intention of supporting researchers from all areas, as well as exploring specific disciplinary practices. The "Building Research Confidence Unworkshop Series" began in fall 2020 as an integrated series of informal sessions that focused on different stages of the research lifecycle and that provided an informal environment for students from all disciplines to ask questions and get help. For fall 2021, the Libraries created the "Building Research Confidence in the Humanities" series, which engaged with humanities researchers over nine sessions, introducing a range of tools, resources, and techniques for growing their research practice. The opening of the new Dinsdale Family Learning Commons resulted in the creation of the Dinsdale "Preparing for Sharing your Research" series. Topics in this series aligned closely with the unique information, data, and scholarly communication needs of the UNL East Campus and Innovation Campus communities. Another series of workshops that was aimed at supporting researchers within the social and behavioral sciences focused on teaching strategies for reviewing social sciences literature and raising familiarity of scholarly research databases.
The workshops are open to all UNL students, staff, and faculty, and have helped raise awareness of the vast range of expertise, resources, and services made available through the Libraries. Over 40 workshops have been offered so far, attracting over 700 registrants from every college across the university.