This article explores student, instructor, and librarian perceptions of chat reference in the context of an introductory composition course. Participants in a mixed-method study responded to an anonymized chat transcript. While student respondents valued speed and efficiency, they were willing to receive instruction and open to questions that…

When secondary school librarians teach students digital life literacies, they help students perceive that librarians can provide support for real-life problems. The more librarians work with students, create inviting library environments, and have positive engagements with students, the more they change student perceptions of librarians in…

Academic reference librarians continually observe that many students are embarrassed about not knowing how to use the library and are reluctant to approach the reference desk. The theory of library anxiety offers an explanation, proposing that a fear of being in and using libraries serves as a psychological barrier, hindering many university…

Efforts have been made by the Cornell University Libraries (New York) reference staff to assist students with their library research for a popular undergraduate course in human sexuality. Librarians have found the course to be a serious problem for both their reference and stack collections as most students do not understand research strategy,…

Suggested ways to develop an appreciation of and use of reference sources by high school students include personal assistance, instruction in research strategies and use of materials, an impartial and nonjudgmental attitude, and providing material within the time allocated by the patron. Two references and an 11-item bibliography are provided.…

This seminar addressed various aspects of the provision of library and other services to external students. Resolutions carried at the end of the seminar are noted, and the full text is provided for the opening address, which summarizes the activities of the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission Standing Committee on External Studies, and the…

Explores whether library instruction can enhance college students' self-efficacy in electronic information searching. Assesses self-efficacy before and after library instruction; examines how self-esteem is related to students' attitudes toward acquiring electronic search skills, their emotions, and search performance; and discusses implications…

The purpose of this grant, funded by the Council on Library Resources, was to allow a librarian to put aside normal duties for an academic year to explore with faculty, students, and administrators ways of improving library services, and to design methods of increasing library use by college students. A program was developed for orienting and…

This document is a final report of a study that assessed students' use of the Information Online (IO) computer catalog at the Indiana University at South Bend (IUSB) library, as well as their skills and attitudes related to library use. The 38 participants completed multiple choice and true/false exercises testing their understanding of the IO…

At Lansing Community College, 413 arts and sciences, 100 business, and 81 vocational students were surveyed to determine their attitudes towards the college's three, curriculum-based Learning Resource Centers (LRC's). In particular, the study tried to assess students' attitudes toward the decentralization of learning resources by curricular…