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Yes, the library offers several credit-bearing courses (listed below) throughout the year as well as an independent study (LI 371) for seniors preparing a thesis or an extensive project in their major. Available credit-bearing courses can be found in the Master Schedule under the department "Library".  Independent studies can be done by consulting with the applicable librarian and filling out an independent study form (see below for more details). 

LI 100: Library Research Skills

In this one-credit, half-semester course students will hone their search skills in a variety of resources, selection of proper sources, and the evaluation of search results. Classes will interrogate the social, political and economic issues of information.

LI 201: Overdue Notice: Libraries and Social Justice

Libraries are institutions that simultaneously preserve, reflect, perpetuate, and challenge cultural assumptions of the diverse communities they serve. In this Bridge Experience course, students will examine the role of libraries in the United States and identify ways that these institutions participate in both systems of privilege and movements toward social justice in contemporary America. For the 1-credit Practice/Application component of the course, students will consider what it would mean to make Skidmore’s academic library more just and present to a Scribner Library panel a proposal to enact one change that is “overdue,” addressing our spaces, services, collections, or online resources.

This course is a total of 3 credits and fulfills the Bridge Experience requirement.

LI 202: Free to All: Public Libraries in U.S. Society 

An exploration of how societal factors such as class, race, gender, sexuality, and immigration impacted the development of libraries in the 19th and 20th centuries and their continuing influence on public libraries in the United States today. Students will investigate how contemporary libraries address societal inequities through their resources, services, and collections, and how societal forces directly impact how these libraries operate. A primary focus will be censorship including the radical shift from an acceptance and enforcement of censorship in early libraries to the staunch defense of intellectual freedom seen today. Students will conduct primary source research on cases of censorship to design Banned Books Week posters for the campus.

This course is a total of 3 credits and fulfills the Bridge Experience requirement.

LI 371: Independent Study

Preparation for a senior thesis, capstone, or honors project that requires a serious research component. Students will work one-on-one with a subject specialist in the library to prepare the groundwork for an intensive academic project within their major. Students will be instructed in the organization of information and in sophisticated search strategies for finding, evaluating, and using information.

Students must obtain approval from their academic advisor. Permission of the instructor required.

To register for LI 371, students must complete the Independent Study form and have the following people sign it:

• Instructor (appropriate Subject Librarian)
• Chairperson (College Librarian)
• Student's faculty advisor