Shedding Light on Student Use of Library Resources

Aysegul Ergin and Mojisola Kike Otegbeye

Sandra Power, Account Development Manager, Elsevier, Toronto, Canada

Last fall, Scopus Student Ambassadors Mojisola Kike Otegbeye and Aysegul Ergin surveyed 53 graduate students on the New Jersey Institute of Technology campus in Newark regarding how and why they use library resources. Respondents represented various science and engineering backgrounds.

Thirty-six percent of respondents reported accessing library resources one to three times per week. The majority (70%) of respondents reported using library resources to find articles for their research.

Google was cited as the resource used most frequently, for students' research. Mojisola noted the appeal of Google, saying, "It makes searching easy and has a high tolerance for spelling errors." Interestingly, most respondents citing Google as among their top three resources also listed proprietary resources including Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and IEEE products. Such a mix, in Aysegul's opinion, "shows users know the difference between results from Google and real scientific resources."

To find out about new resources at the NJIT library, most respondents (68%) rely on the library’s website while others turn to professors, librarians and colleagues. When asked about use of current awareness resources, almost half reported rarely or never setting up email alerts to learn about new content. Many users said they are still learning about RSS feeds.

Mojisola believes NJIT has done a good job promoting library resources via the library's website. She commented, "The Robert W. Van Houten Library has a very useful website where students get access to lots of information, including specifics on available databases as well as details on how to contact or chat with librarians."

According to Mojisola, faculty can play a bigger role in promoting library resources by discussing them more with students. Library-provided trainings can also help promote scholarly resources. While 74% of survey respondents reported not having participated in a library training session, 50% indicated planning to do so.

Participating in library training can help students overcome their biggest challenge: finding what they need in little time. Noted Aysegul, “The key is to eliminate the frustration of turning up empty-handed after a search using library resources.” Students who worry that post-graduation they will no longer have access to resources subscribed to by the library reported opting to improve their search skills using Google — free and available from anywhere in the world.

Understanding where and why graduate students access information assists librarians and publishers to serve this population better. Thanks go to Mojisola and Aysegul for gathering data reported here. More on Scopus Student Ambassadors appears in "Outreach Program Puts Focus on New Resources" in Library Connect Newsletter, Volume 3, Number 4, at www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect.