What the heck do librarians do with students during individualized research consultations???

Abstract

Academic librarians often meet students and researchers on an individual basis to provide them with educational sessions tailored to their specific research projects. Anecdotal feedback from students and researchers indicate a high level of appreciation for this service, as it addresses specific needs related to their research project. To better understand what occurs during these consultations, librarians at the University of Ottawa were surveyed about the type of assistance they provide during these meetings. From February to May 2015, twelve librarians, from various disciplines, participated in this exercise. Results indicate that the main activity performed during these meetings was providing help with bibliographic database searching. The second most popular activity was help with keyword/subject heading selection; however, less than half of respondents consulted a specialized thesaurus while helping students. Providing help with citation management tools was popular, but was not as frequently requested as expected. Many other activities were observed and will be compiled and analyzed as part of this poster. In conclusion, although additional types of assistance is provided, such as help with research question formulation, “traditional” activities, such as database searching, remain the main components of these individualized research consultations.