The Glenn G. Bartle Library will house a tutorial this week aimed at helping students utilize academic research engines and a new bibliography system recently purchased by the school.
The event, termed Library Research Days, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight through Thursday in the Instruction Lab of the Newcomb Reading Room.
According to Alesia McManus, head of research for information and instructional services for the library at Binghamton University, students attending the sessions will be able to receive individual attention from librarians to find sources, tips for using the library’s various databases and information on using the newly available RefWorks system to add citations and bibliographies to papers.
McManus said students can sometimes get confused when researching.
“If they’re using one of our 200 online databases, they might find themselves getting too much or too little information if the proper search terms aren’t used,” McManus said.
In other cases, McManus said she found that students preferred to search the databases they’re the most comfortable with, even if they didn’t yield the best results.
“Tried-and-true isn’t always the best option,” she said.
The purpose of the RefWorks system is to simplify the process of citing and sourcing documents.
Students can select an option next to the online sources they find in databases or through the library catalog to add their information into the system. Then with a few clicks, the information can be sorted into a bibliography of any writing style or cited into a paper with the help of a plug-in.
The RefWorks system is convenient for students who are pressed for time when doing research papers, according to Richard Law, a freshman majoring in biochemistry. But Law said he also saw drawbacks.
“I don’t think this system teaches students the conventional way to compose a bibliography,” Law said.
McManus said the idea for the three-night event is based around “term paper clinics,” which were offered by libraries in the past.
Angelique Jenks-Brown, a science reference librarian who helped organize the tutorial, said a program like Library Research Days isn’t difficult to hold.
“We first tried a program like this in the spring and decided to do it again due to the positive feedback we received,” McManus said.
According to McManus, most students come to the Reference Desk looking for in-depth help, but with only two people on staff for the majority of the time, one-on-one attention isn’t feasible.
“Each student that showed up for the program in the spring was given 15 to 80 minutes of individual attention,” she said.
The original format was two days with five hours each day, McManus said, but the library decided to add more days to the program this semester after it found out that most students showed up in the evening hours.
“With programs like these we hope to reach out to students and let them be aware how the library can help them,” she said.
Jenks-Brown said she hoped that research skills learned by students will be carried with them for the rest of their lives and careers.
Jeffrey Howard, a student majoring in English, said it’s great that the library is offering a program like Library Research Days.
“Even though the library has so many books and options online to find sources, I think that this program will be very helpful in assisting students who are struggling to find information,” he said.
For those who cannot attend the event, there are alternatives to help conduct research.
On the library’s main Web site under the Ask a Librarian link, students can submit questions to librarians. Students can also set up appointments with subject librarians if they contact the reference desk. All of the numbers are available at library.binghamton.edu.