RE: Universities May be Failing to Sufficiently Teach Basic Research

["Chen, Xiaotian" <chen@bumail.bradley.edu>]

Maybe librarians should re-evaluate the traditional services---If 
students can get by by never having "been to a library and never 
seen or used an online database," maybe some of our services are 
no longer essential to them.

Maybe we should re-define what "basic research" is in the 21st 
century. Maybe we should ask ourselves why students do not have 
the perception that they need us, as mentioned by Rick Anderson 
and Bernie Sloan in recent posts.

Maybe in fact (or indeed) they do not need us as much as we 
think, because, A. search and access have been made easier by 
Google, Amazon, OpenURL and Open Access; B. we are too much 
behind by the Google standard.

Maybe it is the time for us to stop trying to convince them that 
library databases are better than Google Scholar or PubMed, 
because we may not have scientific data to back us up.

Xiaotian Chen
Bradley University Library
Peoria, Illinois 
http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~chen/

________________________________

From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Cecilia Roberts
Sent: Wed 11/10/2010 7:31 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Universities May be Failing to Sufficiently Teach Basic
Research

Schools MAY BE failing to teach basic Research Skills??????? I've 
been fighting my college for years to put information literacy in 
place as a requirement for incoming students (undergrads and 
grads).  I'm tired of seeing seniors/master's/doctoral candidates 
who have never been to a library and never seen or used an online 
database....

Cecilia F. Roberts
roberts.cecilia@gmail.com