Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Assessment Aha! Moment #5: Market the library as a time saver.



Assessment Aha Moment #5: Market the library as a “time saver.”   

                DePaul University in Chicago has over 50% of their students coming in as transfer students. Many of them work full-time. They market the library as a time-saver. Students in one study I heard about at the conference did not want to ask librarians for help, since they wanted to seem self-sufficient. (This study used a technique of having students draw a picture of their research process; the pictures were mostly quite funny and showed things like “stress cleaning” and other ways of procrastinating.) Unfortunately, this insistence on self-sufficiency leads to some wasted time as they learn to navigate the library’s resources. I think that instead of showcasing our many collections and databases, we need to reach students at the bottom line: coming to the library and getting help here saves time. Perhaps this is should be the first research question we undertake!

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