Study: College Students rarely use librarians' expertise

This article appeared in USA Today and obviously doesn't tell me anything that I already know.  It reports on a study done by ERIAL (Enthographic Research in Illinois Library Project).

Whenever I give a class I always tell the students that I am always more than willing to help them with their research endeavors, but fewer students either approach me at the reference desk or contact me privately.  Steve Kolowich, the author of the USA Today article states that librarians and professors are partially to blame for this problem.  The ERIAL researchers state that students feel intimidated and alienated.  Are today's students just too embarassed to ask for help while years ago there was often a line of people waiting for assistance.

This article states the problem, but in my opinion does not offer a clear solution.

Always Glad to Help Out Library Science Students

Back in the Fall of 1992, my first semester at NJIT, I taught Science and Technology Reference at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science.  I did this at their Manhattan extension which at that time was at the New School.  It has since moved to the Bobst Library at NYU.  I gave the students an assignment to visit a science library and to interview the science librarian.  They then reported back to the class.

A few days ago I received this e-mail from Sabrina at North Carolina Central University.

Mr. Slutsky,


I am a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science at North Carolina Central University. I am currently enrolled in a course that deals with science and technology resources for librarians. My professor, Dr. Susan Aber, has given a class assignment to interview a librarian responsible for science, engineering, or technology resources. The purpose of the interview is to give students an idea of some of the daily responsibilities of a Sci-tech librarian.


I searched the internet for science and technology librarians and found your science, technology, and medical librarians special interest group. I understand that you must be very busy. I am hopeful, however, that you will agree to a short (approximately 10 minutes) interview.

For your information, I am listing the interview questions below.



1. What duties are expected of you as a Sci-tech librarian?

2. What types of resources do you need to accomplish the job successfully?

3. Can you provide an example of a recent reference question that you were asked by a library patron?

4. Do you give instruction sessions or create subject guides for finding Sci-tech sources? If so, are they for patrons or for your own use?

If you are willing to be interviewed, I would be happy to phone you at your convenience. If you prefer, you can also provide an email response to the four questions above.


I appreciate your time and hope that you are willing to be interviewed for my class assignment
 
I was very happy to speak with this student.  I mentioned that the cost of science/engineering resources was so much higher than those for the humanities and social sciences.  Wherever possible we try to use free internet resources like ChemSpider and the NIST Webbook.

Jason Kucsma is appointed Executive Director of METRO

It was announced at the Annual Meeting of the Metropolitan New York Library Council Meeting on October 17th that Jason Kucsma was appointed its Executive Director succeeding Dottie Hiebing who recently retired.  As convener of the Science Librarians SIG I had the pleasure of working with Jason in his position as Emerging Technologies Manager.  I congratulate him and wish him well in his new position.

Offical Announcement

When Faculty are not information literate

Information literacy and its assessment has been discussed throughout the library community for years.  What do you do when faculty lack these skills?  In the course of a year I get requests for books or documents from senior faculty.  It is a simple matter of searching the library catalog to see if we have the item and if it is available in print or electronic format.  Is it a matter of laziness or arrogance?  I will always answer the question, but do it reluctantly.  It is my job to provide information to my community, but I have to think of that old cliche - "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for one day.  Show a man how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.

Again - Information Literacy and the Substitute Teacher

About a year ago I wrote an entry about a frustrating experience in teaching to a class of biomedical engineering students.  A similar situation occurred on Monday while teaching to a chemical enginering class.  Out of 20 students in the class only 14 came.  Several arrived very late while a few others left in the middle.  I have certainly experienced this before, but it is especially disappointing when advanced undergraduates don’t take a class in their major seriously  I tried to explain how important learning how to find information in peer reviewed sources is so important, but they saw me as a substitute teacher.  I gave the class an assignment, and told the professors that the no shows and walk outs should get "zeros" if they don't do the assignment.

Only 10 out of the 20 students enrolled in the class even bothered to submit the assignment. [Added to this journal entry on November 9, 2011]

Providing alumni access to library databases

I was intrigued by this article which reports that 19 universities now provide access to JSTOR by paying 10% more than the institution's current license fee.  From time to time the reference librarians do get questions from alumni asking if they can access the databases remotely.  The answer is no since once students graduate they lose their computing privileges.  They are certainly welcome to visit NJIT and get a guest ID and search the databases.  However, this option is often impractical.

Certainly, a university should maintain good relationships with their alumni by providing at least some library services.  JSTOR is a humanities database that does not provide access to current journals.  I tend to doubt that scientiic and technical publishers would follow JSTOR's lead and allow universities to give free access to alumni who now work for profit making organizations.

Reference Question from a Non-Affiliate

In this era of Google, very few indepedent researchers visit academic libraries.  This morning an older gentleman had a reference question about a chemical company that existed from the 1930s to 1960s.  He already did his Googling, but figured he needed to search print resources.  I explained that the collection at NJIT served the curriculum here and that I doubted that there would be historical information about a company.  I was able to find articles and patents where this company was listed as a corporate author.  This gave him some information on what the company manufactured.  I referred him to the Dana Library at Rutgers which has a much stronger business collection.  He also said that he planned to visit the New Jersey Historical Society.

It's nice to get an unusual and challenging reference question.