Library Science 101

My Approach at the RefDesk when helping a student or member of the faculty (which occasionally would get me into trouble):

• "Let's Try Something Else" (i.e. different database or different search terms, etc.)

Secrets of Library Science (Academic)

Secret Part 1 -- They Call It 'Teachable Moment':

Important to remember: the student is there to learn something. You don't look up the article -- the student does! You're there to make looking up anything a 'teachable moment'. That's your job, that's your responsibility. We all come out better for it!

Secret Part 2 -- Problem Finding Something?

If you're helping a student search for something and nothing turns up: Encourage the student to try another search term or database. Things can be hard to track down but there are a variety of sources to look up -- and a variety of search terms one can use to find them.

Goal of an Academic Research Librarian

Goal of an Academic Research Librarian: Teach the student how best to use the library's online research tools (article coming out) ...

It's not the People that are Stupid, It's the System!

Okay, I've got way too many things on my plate at the moment to go through this report, "Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) Project" but Sarah Kessler in a write-up for Mashable sums it up thusly:

"Students in a two-year ethnographic study referred to Google more than any database when discussing their research habits. But ironically, say the study’s authors, they weren’t very good at using it."

Now, as a librarian and lifelong user of Google, I know you can limit it (kind of) by date or content type (eg book, article, image) plus a thousand other fancy things using a minus sign ('-') or quotes, etc. but should requiring knowing these things always -- or ideally -- be the ticket of entry? Doesn't sound very Google-ly to me.

Kessler in the Mashable write-up quotes one student:

"I know there are books but I don’t really know how to find them. Really the only thing I know how to do is go to Google and type in what I’m looking for."

My reaction was, I dunno. Sounds more to me like 'system fail' rather than 'people fail'. Ideally all that user should have to do is go to Google and type in what he or she is looking for. That at least is what I'd consider the 'Holy Grail'.