How Students Virtually Approach the Library NELIG Annual Program 2013 Kendall Hobbs Reference/Instruction Librarian Wesleyan University

Discovery Tools Single “Google-like” search box to search most/all library content We tested: – WorldCat – Summon – EBSCO – Primo

The Study Students who recently completed a paper/project requiring sources beyond assigned materials “Briefly show and explain how you found resources for that assignment” “Use the four candidate discovery tools to search for your topic” Recorded with BB Flashback Express (from Blueberry Software)

Summary of Findings Tools started to look more similar than different No strong consensus on favorites or ranking. Similar patterns in doing research and using tools

General Search Strategies Basic keyword searches, then modify with facets, other terms, etc. Mostly articles, maybe some books Abstracts Fewer clicks are better Rarely go past first page or two of results

Using Discovery Tools Good general understanding of facets, but vague on details Favorite facets: full text, scholarly/peer-reviewed They go with default settings

Wesleyan’s Current Home Page

WorldCat (Trinity College)

Summon (UConn)

Summon’s Subject Facets

EBSCO (U of Georgia)

Primo (Northwestern)

How Do We Teach This? Is “good enough” too easy? From “how to search” to “how to evaluate search results” Discovery tool vs. subject indexes/databases Does it really make much of a difference? Rethink information literacy standards?

Some Common Concerns Is this “dumbing down” research? Can we trust the process/results? Future – Information scarcity – Information overload – ?