March 16, 2015

Requiring Students to Meet with a Librarian, @launcch

My SILS grad assistant and I presented some interesting research at the Librarians' Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conference on March 13, 2015.

Check out our slides:



More details:

I've worked with students in Jim Hefner's JOMC 424 (Electronic Media Management) class, spending more and more time with his students. In spring 2014, he began *requiring* students to meet with a librarian, rather than encouraging them to do so, as they prepared to write their 12-15 page research paper. He had tried all manner of encouragement with little success; requiring students to meet with a librarian was much more successful.

In fall 2014, we received IRB approval to survey Hefner's students to assess if their meeting with us had an effect on their confidence in writing the paper (somewhat) and they perceived it would have an effect on meeting with a librarian in the future (they said it did).

This presentation highlights our research findings and discusses our plans for future interactions with Hefner's students.

Takeaway message: Tell faculty to require students to meet with a librarian!

1 comment:

CogSciLibrarian said...

We saw 52 students (out of 57; 91%) this semester.
We received 28 comments from students. 63% say they are likely to visit us again, and 14% say they are very likely to see a librarian again. (22% are unlikely or very unlikely to do so).

Looking at the results quickly ... it seems that we were again quite successful. I'm grateful to my FOUR library science students for their help in talking to 52 students individually!