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Welcome to your university library

This guide contains some Library related information that will be most useful in the first couple of weeks of your very first semester. Returning students may also find this useful as a refresher.

How to get help with academic skills

There are a number of ways that you can get help with developing and improving different academic skills. Some of them are more self-directed, others involve attending sessions for a particular skillset.

Develop@Derby Online Resources

If you look at the Library pages you will see a tab for Support. When you click on that, one of the options in the drop-down list will be Develop@Derby - here you will find a large number of resources (printable documents; podcasts; text; videos) related to different skills. For example, essay writing, critical thinking and more. Do make sure you look at those resources and take note of any that may be useful. You can bookmark the pages to come back to later.

Develop@Derby Workshops

Throughout the year the Library delivers regular, online workshops covering a variety of skills and resources, including academic skills. There is a tile for Workshops on the Library home page and you can also get access to the Workshops (Library events) calendar by clicking on this link. You have to register for the workshop you want to attend and you will need to use a university email address. Don't forget that the end of your student email address is @unimail.derby.ac.uk as if you leave any part of that out you won't get the reminder emails or the email with the link to the online workshop room.

If the workshops are being delivered at a time which conflicts with your schedule, sign up anyway. As long as you've registered you will be sent a recording of a session that took place. It's better to attend the workshop if you can, but if it's not possible you can still access the material to go through in your own time.