Page 6 - 2018 Spring Newsletter

Planning For The Future:

Reference Services, Instruction and

Marketing Efforts

When Linda Chenoweth, Jeff Bond, Bogi Huddleston
and Tracy Hull began investigating expectations and
perceptions of undergraduate student research skills, they
saw a challenge and initiated a process to assess student
research skills.

In Fall 2016, the research team conducted three focus groups
with 21 faculty members to assess student research skills.
Through these focus groups they identified nine core research
skills that faculty expect students to have—citing sources,
differentiating among types of sources, evaluating sources,
finding sources, search strategy, summarizing information,
synthesizing information, topic selection and understanding
citations.

To address the perception of these core research skills and
to collect more quantitative data, the research team sent out
a survey to all faculty in Fall 2017. From these surveys, the
research team learned there is a gap in faculty expectations
and perceptions of student research skills. To meet their
committed goal and to make an impact on student research
skills, the data found from these surveys will be used to
shape the future of TCU Library’s reference services, library
instruction and marketing efforts. The Research Team Prepares for SLA Presentation

Using the findings from this research project, the research team created as a poster and in June 2018 presented it at the
Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD. The poster was selected as “Best Poster” by
attendees, which included a blue ribbon and an award of $100.

6 | TCU Library