Skills and Tutors

Book a Librarian

We offer one-to-one support for Courtauld students looking for assistance with finding books, articles, images, scholarship, or art. Learn how to become a powerful library researcher and other digital and information skills. To book a 50 minute appointment:

Check availability through our online calendar. Bookings open on Wednesday afternoons for the following Monday-Friday.
Book the session that suits you. The booking system shows the next available appointment. If no appointments are shown, please check again later.
Tell us how you would like us to help you.
We email you to confirm your booking. The session will take place through Microsoft Teams unless you specify an in-person appointment is your preference. Please make sure that you are signed into Teams ahead of your appointment.

If you need assistance please contact us.

Tutors

Royal Literary Fellows

Sita Brahmachari and Dr Lucasta Miller, promote excellence in writing skills for Courtauld students. Professional published authors, Sita and Lucasta provide one to one confidential tutorials for undergraduates and postgraduates. In person sessions take place in The Library Collaborative Space, Room VG12, Vernon Square Campus.

To book a session email:

sita.brahmachari@rlfeducation.org.uk

lucasta.miller@rlfeducation.org.uk

Academic Skills Tutor:

Anjali Thakariya offers advice on skills specific to Art History, including research, visual analysis, and presentation. She can also help you to understand essay feedback, develop revision strategies, or cope with last-minute essay panic.

Any student can make an appointment with Anjali: please email her to book an appointment. Anjali is based in the library at Vernon Square. Email Anjali Thakariya for an appointment or advice: anjali.thakariya@courtauld.ac.uk

Disability Support Specialist Study Skills Tutor

The Courtauld also has a Specialist Study Skills tutor, who offers 1:1 study skills support to students with study skills recommended in their diagnostic report and/or medical evidence. This includes students with specific learning differences, mental health concerns, and autistic spectrum conditions.

If you have (or suspect that you have) a specific learning difficulty (Spld), such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia or dyspraxia, or if your diagnostic assessment is more than five years old, you can contact wellbeing@courtauld.ac.uk or janet.harper@courtauld.ac.uk for advice about assessment and support. If appropriate, we can refer students to a partner organization for assessment and the cost of the test will be covered by The Courtauld.

How can the Specialist Study Skills Tutor help?

The support offered by Janet is student-centred, designed around individual academic needs, and complies with the social model of disability.

Specialist study skills can help with:

Understanding: how you approach challenges, how you learn best, and how you can succeed

Strategies: techniques to be effective in reading, writing, planning, and all other aspects of study

Assistive technology: how you can make the most of technology designed to make you an independent and effective student

Communication: develop the confidence to ask the right questions, stay in touch with people who can help you, and respond when you need to

Organisation and planning: learn to organize your time well so you have time for studying, writing, and wellbeing

Support for Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)

If you have (or suspect that you have) a specific learning difficulty (Spld), such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia or dyspraxia, or if your diagnostic assessment is more than five years old, you can contact wellbeing@courtauld.ac.uk or janet.harper@courtauld.ac.uk for advice about assessment and support. If appropriate, we can refer students to a partner organization for assessment and the cost of the test will be covered by The Courtauld. Find out more on the student VLE.

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)

You can apply for Disabled Students’ Allowances and more information about the application process and the evidence you need to submit is available on the government website.

Personal Tutors

If you want to address an academic or pastoral issue, you can also speak to your Personal Tutor. Please email them for an appointment.

Citing and Referencing

The Courtauld’s recommended referencing style is the Chicago Manual of Style Online. The Library team and the Academic Skills tutor can support you in using this style guide. Other humanities referencing styles may also be acceptable, but please check with your course tutor and ensure that you are consistent.

It is important that you keep track of the sources that you use. This helps you remember which ones are authoritative and retrace them when you need so. Most importantly keeping a record of the sources will be useful when you are referencing them on your assessed works.

While it remains essential to understand the principles of citation there are also tools that can help you organise the process. Reference Management Software can help you integrate the research process with the compilation of a bibliography, rather than treating them as separate tasks. Even if you don’t need to write a bibliography, they are a powerful way of keeping track of the literature you have consulted and allow for annotation, tagging, note-taking, creating relationships between documents and sharing documents among research groups. There is a range of software packages, some are free or low cost such as Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, et al. The Library can help you start on Zotero.

Library ‘Top Tips’ short videos on key library skills

You might find our short 3-minute videos below very helpful:
Primary Sources, Introducing Open Access Resources, Developing and Refining Search Strategies, Evaluating Information.