Implementation and evaluation of online, synchronous research consultations for graduate students
| Date | 06 August 2018 |
| Published date | 06 August 2018 |
| Pages | 4-8 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2017-0070 |
| Author | Amanda Bezet,Taylor Duncan,Kira Litvin |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
Implementation and evaluation of online,
synchronous research consultations for
graduate students
Amanda Bezet, Taylor Duncan and Kira Litvin
Introduction and review
The provision of library research
consultations dates back to at least the
1970s (Cordell, 2013), though it is quite
possible that librarians have been doing
this on an informal basis since the
earliest days of the profession. And
while the terminology and format may
have evolved, research consultations
are generally recognized as in-depth,
customized, one-on-one meetings with
a reference librarian. Lee (2004, p. 170)
further describes the goal of research
consultations to “empower the client
with both the skills necessary to
accomplish his or her research objective
and to educate the client on information
resources available in both print and
electronic formats.” Unfortunately,
however, research consultations are
rarely documented in the scholarly
literature. Savage (2015) found that
within the past 10 years, research
consultations were mentioned in less
than 1 per cent of Library and
Information Science articles and even
fewer of those mention assessment
measures. Fournier and Sikora (2015),
in their retrospective scoping review of
the literature, identified just 20 research
articles that mentioned assessing
individual consultations. With no
governing professional standards for
research consultations, it is plausible
that librarians either overlook the value
of this service or lump consultations
into general reference practices.
It was not until quite recently that we
started to see occasional evidence that
the traditional research consultation has
made the transition to the virtual
environment (Adams and Cassner,
2010;Bennett, 2017;Daly, 2016;
Jagman, 2016;Lietzau and Mann, 2009;
Malone, 2015;Nichols Hess et al.,
2015;Pastula, 2010;Somerville and
Schader, 2005;Steiner, 2011). Steiner
(2011, p. 440) describes the goal of
virtual research consultations to
“combine the virtual learning landscape
of students working entirely online with
an exemplary instructional reference
service traditionally offered strictly
physically in a face-to-face
environment.” Undergoing a review of
library websites for the 19 institutions
included on the US News & World
Report’s list of Up-and-Coming
national universities, Nielsen (2014)
found that only four of the schools
offered online research consultations
for distance-learning students. An
opportunity exists to make virtual
research consultations more widely
adopted as a distinct library reference
service and, further, to measure the
impact of this service.
Founded in 1996, Northcentral
University (NCU) is a medium-sized,
for-profit university regionally
accredited by the WASC Senior
College and University Commission.
The total full-time equivalent students
in Fall 2016 were 7,004. NCU offers a
variety of online degree and certificate
programs from the bachelor’s level
through the doctoral degree level in the
fields of business, education,
psychology, marriage and family
therapy and health sciences. Staffed by
four full-time librarians and two library
specialists, the NCU Library provides
access to over 120 online databases
containing close to 50,000 electronic
journals, more than 140,000 electronic
books, 1.9 million dissertations and
over one million videos. Services
offered include virtual reference, live
and recorded workshops, interlibrary
loan and, since May 2013, online
synchronous research consultations for
students, faculty or staff.
Librarians at NCU provide online
synchronous research consultations
to discuss resources and search
strategies for class assignments,
papers, presentations, theses and
dissertations. While consultations are
open to any NCU student, faculty or
staff member, they are most
beneficial to doctoral students who
are already familiar with basic search
techniques, have a clearly identified
research topic and have already done
significant research on their own.
And, in fact, as most of the student
population (98-99 per cent) is at the
graduate and doctoral level, librarians
rarely meet one-on-one with
undergraduate students. This research
project documents the implementation
and assessment of this library service and
seeks to demonstrate that research
consultations provided by NCU librarians
are contributing to students’ learning and
success.
Research questions
RQ1. Are students satisfied with
online research consultations?
RQ2. Can we demonstrate students’
learning of research
techniques as a result of the
online research consultation?
RQ3. Are students better able to
locate relevant resources for
their topics following an
online research consultation?
RQ4. Does the quality of students’
citations for the proposal,
concept paper and/or literature
review improve following an
online research consultation?
4LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2018, pp. 4-8, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-09-2017-0070
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