The Hardest Part of Research for Students

In the fall, I put up a feedback poster (previous feedback posters mentioned here and here) that asked students to complete the phrase: The hardest part of research is...

The responses were unsurprising:

I was able to roughly categorize almost all of the responses into the following categories:

• Getting started: “knowing where to begin,” “starting it,” “the beginning”
• Avoiding distractions: “ignoring the cat”
• Locating information: “looking for articles” or “navigating research terms to find the best results”
• Evaluating information: “being critical about your sources/citations” and “sorting the wheat from the chaff”
• Organizing sources: “keeping everything organized”
• Procrastination: “turning on self-control” and “calculating how long you can procrastinate until the situation becomes desperate”
• Writing the paper: “write up the paper” and “editing”

We then used this as an opportunity to inform students that librarians can help with many of these things.  For the others - procrastination and writing the paper - we directed them to another department called the PACE Center, which offers procrastination and time management workshops, as well as tutoring and writing assistance. 

We posted our response on our blog and in print on the window where the above poster was previously located.  I meant to put it on our Facebook page but since I queued the blog post to go live at a later date, I forgot. 

Speaking of which, is there a good way to tie social media together?  Perhaps some sort of tool?  It used to be that our blog could feed directly into Facebook, but then Facebook removed that feature.  It's time consuming to remember to post these things in several locations, so I'm open to any and all suggestions!

I Wish My Library Would...

I mentioned previously that we are using posters to get feedback from students.  We put up our second set of  feedback posters in January.  The more popular one was the one that read "I wish my library would...."  You can see for yourself:

Of course, the most frequent comment was about this year's reduction in the print quota, something the library had nothing to do with.  We have heard most of the other comments before as well, although there were a few new ones.  However, we chose to treat this as an opportunity to respond to these concerns again, and in some cases, more thoroughly.  Responses have been posted where the poster was previously located (see image below) and are slowly being posted on our blog and Facebook page. 

My favorite response is the one answering the request for more online resources.  This time I included actual data, such as:

• We added the following databases recently and will be adding one more soon
• We spent X amount of money on electronic resources alone in 2011-12
• One of our full-text databases costs X amount of money

Students (and faculty!) have no idea what library resources cost the library/university, and the few I've informed about one price or another have been horrified.  This time we just opted to put it out there for everyone to read.  I also told them how much we pay for some of the educational DVDs in response to a request for more.  Once again, very few people outside of the library world realize these DVDs can regularly cost us $150-$500. 

For each separate response, there is space for students to write in additional questions and comments, but so far no one has done so (although one person did correct my spelling when I wrote roll instead of role...).  I have definitely seen some students reading them, so here's hoping this helps us to continue to improve the library's image!

Suggestion Box Display

I've mentioned our Suggestion Box display several times already, but thought I would post a picture of its current state.

Getting Feedback from Students

A few years ago, I created a display of the suggestions students had submitted and the responses from the library. This seems to have had a very positive impact.  There are far fewer suggestions now because many of them have already been answered.  In addition, my boss believes (as do I) that our responsiveness to the suggestions has increased students satisfaction with the library.  We are unable to carry out many of the suggestions, but we always respond and tell them why.

Recently, my boss gave me another suggestion for soliciting student feedback: a poster board with a starter phrase and space for students to respond.  Over finals I thought it would be nice to get them used to the idea of being able to write in this space by putting up two posters more for stress relief than feedback.  We had "Finals are..." and "All I want for [favorite winter holiday] is...."  As you can see below, we definitely got some responses.

 

I just finished putting up two new posters - "I love my library because..." and "I wish my library would...."  I'm looking forward to seeing what the students write.  Classes start tomorrow, so they'll be back soon!