The ability to retrieve and assess relevant and reliable information is an important lifelong skill for students, faculty, and the South Carolina community at large. One of the library's core missions is to teach its users how to search through the overwhelming volume of available material for what they need and to critically think about what they've found.

Among the Libraries' instruction and orientation activities are:

• Freshman English orientation classes
  English 103 classes attend a session at the library to meet a librarian, hear about the ways they can get help with their research, and learn about major search tools and resources.
  
• Subject-specific classes
  The subject liaison librarians meet with classes and prepare class handouts and/or webpages to support research needs of specific courses.
  
• Virtual Tour
  An online tour walks visitors through Cooper Library.
  
• Context-specific instruction of remote users
  The Libraries' webpages are designed to provide explanations of library resources and services linked at all points where users might be looking for the. This web-based information is supplemented by email, instant-message chat and toll-free telephone support for any questions.
  
• CU 101
  Each CU 101 section includes a library session to improve critical thinking.
  
• Freshman, Transfer, and Graduate student orientation
  The Libraries attend new student orientation to answer questions and pass out library guides and other written material.
  

The University Libraries continually assess their instruction practices and revise their methods for helping users learn how to find and use information. Instruction plans under development include podcasts, video modules, and interactive online tutorials. A goal of future instruction activities is also to work with departmental faculty to more closely integrate information skills activities into student coursework - the teaching faculty and librarians can develop meaningful assignments and exercises together that will give students practice in using the Libraries' research resources that is directly applied to their current subject of study.