Academia: "Librarians Save Lives During Research Paper Process"

From The Daily Titan (Cal St University Fullerton):

The librarians at CSUF’s Pollak Library are willing to help students find relevant material for projects and personally locate specific information.
“That is why most of us became librarians,” said Will Breitbach, head of Instruction and Information Services at the Pollak Library, “we relish the hunt for information and love to help students sniff out those hard-to-find bits of info.”
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Kimberly Cartier, 22, a BFA graphic design senior, had no idea that the library had research services.
“That’s like having someone write your paper for free — almost. That most definitely would have made my G.E. years easier if I had known,” said Cartier.
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We get all of this help and selection for free. It is so helpful and credible,” said Amanda Newton, a senior business major.
Students can spend more time completing an assignment and when they use consult with a librarian.
Newton said that she has spent hours trying to unravel the complex databases.
“After speaking with a librarian for five minutes my search was so much quicker,” said Newton.

Comment
The comments web included from students are not unique to Cal St. Fullerton. Hardly. We’ve read and  heard the same or similar comments from students for more than a decade from a variety of schools located in the U.S. and elsewhere.
So, why does Ms. Cartier and many other students like her are unaware of what the library offers? Of course, solving this problem is much easier said than done. Nevertheless, it’s important to figure out why and then remedy the situation. The answer is likely a combo of things with some of them specific to each school and library.
Ms. Newton’s comments illustrate the value of a direct interaction/demonstration and how big strides forward can be achieved in only five minutes. Our guess is that Ms. Newton will continue to use the library and take advantage of the knowledge that the librarians have to share. At the same time her success becomes free advertising/marketing for the library. In other words, word of mouth marketing is very valuable.

Filed under: Journal Articles, Libraries