From the University of Michigan Library “Tiny Studies” Blog:
In this study, engineering librarians Leena Lalwani, Jamie Niehof, and Paul Grochowski sought to learn from graduate students in the College of Engineering (CoE) how these students could benefit from more instruction on U-M Library resources.
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In November 2017, we surveyed engineering graduate students so that we might learn from them how we could better support their academic careers. The survey asked students about their experience with literature reviews, databases used, citation managers, data management, finding funding for research, and knowledge of publishing and copyright. We chose these topics because each represents an area of expertise within the U-M Library.
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Results of the survey seemed to support what we believed. For instance, one of our first questions was, “How effective are you at doing a literature review?” Only 25% of respondents rated themselves as either “extremely effective” or “very effective.” We consider the literature review to be a fundamental skill necessary for success in graduate school. It appears that the respondents agree, for when we followed up by asking if respondents were interested in learning to do a literature review search, 85% replied “Yes” or “Maybe.”
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