The Role of the Library in the International Students Orientation

International students are often dazed and confused when they come to an American campus for the first time.  Most are likely in the United States for the first time and are facing culture shock.  The Office of International Students at NJIT does a fantastic job of orientating students to their new academic environment.  The students hear many speakers about residence life, health services, campus security, banking, and living in Newark.  Yesterday, I represented the library at the orientation.  I was intentionally very brief in my remarks.  I said that it takes time to become proficient in using the multitude of  information resources that they will use in their academic work.  I briefly demonstrated the library home page and its links to the databases and the research guides that the reference staff published.  I certainly hope that the new students benefited by my short lecture.  In the future the students will receive more in depth training.