I'm interested in any type of quantitative or qualitative research that has been done in an academic library setting on the subject of undergraduate students' use of reference service. What motivates students to seek help? What do they perceive are barriers to seeking help? Those are the two key questions I'm exploring. We will be conducting focus groups this spring to explore those questions with students. Our hope is to diversify the groups so that we include students who have already used our reference service and also those who have not.
Hi Kathleen L. DeMe,
It is a very interesting approach of research to know about the student perspective I done research on Reference service at my M.Phil Level as well as I have presents paper in IFLA 2019, Greece Athens, I hope it will help to support but study covers the library practitioner issue
Ali, M. Y., & Haider, K. (2016). An Analysis of Digital Reference Services Tools and Usage in University Libraries of Karachi. Pakistan Library & Information Science Journal, 47(1).
Ali, M. Y., & Haider, K. (2016). DIGITAL REFERENCE SERVICES (DRS) AMONG THE PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR UNIVERSITIES LIBRARIES IN KARACHI: A COMPARATIVE STUDY.
Ali, M. Y., Bhatti, R., & Richardson, J. (2019). New Avenue for Reference and Information Services When Most Content Open Access IFLA. pdf.
Kind Regards,
Yousuf
Hello, Kathleen–
I retired a year and a half ago, from the library at Appalachian State University. Before I retired, our User Experience Librarian, Geri Purpur, was conducting some qualitative research with our students, mainly through our Student Advisory Committee. You might contact her, for exploring ideas. Her email address is: [email protected]. Hope all goes well with your project! It is so important for academic libraries.
We use READScale (Reference Effort Assesment Data Scale) for qualitative evaluation of reference services. We adapt this scale to our needs and combine it with other quantitative statistics.
Glenn Ellen Stilling - I will definitely contact Geri. Thanks so much for the contact!
@Snejanka Penkova - Yes, we also use the READ scale. Most of our questions are rated 3 and 4. It's rarely that we have a 5.
Hi Kathleen
Indeed, you have chosen a very interesting research project.
I think it could be a good idea to consider virtual reference services:
Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Radford, Marie L. (2011). Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research.
https://www.oclc.org/research/publications/2011/synchronicity.html; https://doi.org/10.25333/C3QK98.
In addition, there is a literature review, just published („accepted manuscript“, but perhaps you can find some hints for your study):
Fagan, Jody Condit, Ostermiller, Hillary, Price, Elizabeth & Sapp, Lara (2020). Librarian, faculty, and student perceptions of academic librarians: Study introduction and literature review. New Review of Academic Librarianship,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2019.1691026.
I wish you good luck! Anne-Katharina
- Badges
- Science topic