Business Librarian/Co-Coordinator of User Education David and Lorraine Cheng Library/William Paterson University
After an assignment-based library instruction session, while the librarian may utilize a survey assessment to check for understanding and/or student confidence, they may not know if the student applied the skills and resources learned during the class in their final deliverable to their instructor. To explore if students are using what they learned, this project examined three classes of student research paper bibliographies from three separate disciplines with three different instructors and librarians. All bibliographies examined were from students who attended the library instruction session given to their class. Bibliographies were analyzed by source type as well. Findings show that out of 172 unique sources used in the student work, approximately 71% of them were library sources, demonstrating that students are using the library for resources after instruction. However, there was a disconnect between the individual classes with one class showing significantly less journals and more websites used than the other classes. Trends in the bibliographies revealed some inconsistencies among the non-library sources used, including students utilizing some quality sources while others using questionable ones. Implications for this project include the notion that a significant portion students are using their library's resources after instruction, showing the value of it; it also shows that a professor can have an impact on the types of sources used. Future research could examine how to incorporate bibliographies as part of a larger assessment. This poster will showcase the literature review, methodology, results, and implications using charts and graphics for the data.