students in libraries

Yet another excellent article in the Chronicle, this one about how college students use libraries in their work. An anthropologist and a librarian from Rochester did the study, which involved spending lots of time with students, watching them and talking to them about how they work. The results of the study will be published in a book due out next month from the Association of College and Research Libraries. The researchers were surprised at how involved parents are with their children's work even at the college level. The University of Rochester used the information to help guide a library renovation and a Web-site redesign, and led to changes in the way the library markets itself to students - "the library was once merely a stop on the freshman-orientation tour. Now, after seeing how involved moms and dads are in homework, the library holds a breakfast for parents during orientation."