Periodically, we like to comb through our blog archive to find those articles that are still as useful today as the day they were written. Here is one of those posts.
By Al Bernardo
As a librarian, I’m often asked to visit classes in advance of research assignments, usually to discuss topics related to finding scholarly sources of information. A few years ago, I started asking a simple question when visiting classes at the 100 or 200 level: How many of you have read a scholarly journal article before? While the number of raised hands I saw would vary, I can’t say that it ever surpassed 50% of the students in the room.
Making the transition to the expectations of college research is a significant hurdle students face in acclimating to academic work. They’re asked to use an unfamiliar type of literature, with its own idiosyncratic customs and system of organization, and which is best discovered using its own unique search tools.
Bearing these realities in mind, below are a few tips to help provide students with a supportive, inclusive introduction to research at the college level.
