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Understanding the Graduate Student Research Process: From Concept to Product

Understanding the Graduate Student Research Process: From Concept to Product. Rebecca Pappert Keith Weimer Beth Blanton-Kent and Tina Smith University of Virginia Libraries. Why Graduate Students?. Growing student population in U.S. (2.2-2.7 million [2000-2007], NCES 2010)

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Understanding the Graduate Student Research Process: From Concept to Product

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  1. Understanding the Graduate Student Research Process: From Concept to Product Rebecca Pappert Keith Weimer Beth Blanton-Kent and Tina Smith University of Virginia Libraries

  2. Why Graduate Students? Growing student population in U.S. (2.2-2.7 million [2000-2007], NCES 2010) 31.6% of U.Va. student population (6,598) Bridge between undergraduates and faculty Today’s graduate students represent tomorrow’s faculty (62.5% want to enter academic career)

  3. What do we know about graduate students? Under-researched population (compared to undergraduates and faculty, Fleming-May and Yuro, 2009) “Seek information for immediate as well as long-range purposes” (Green and Macauley, 2007) May be the “most highly engaged in the research process of any group” (George et al., 2006; also Green and Macauley, 2007)

  4. What do we know about graduate students? Research process varies across disciplines (George et al., 2006) Faculty advisers important to research process (George et al., 2006; Jiang, Yeh and Lin, 2009) Known item searching is an important method of finding information (George et al., 2006) Students tend to be unfamiliar with the range of library resources and services (Fleming-May and Yuro, 2009; Jiang, Yeh and Lin, 2009; Sadler and Given, 2007)

  5. CMU – George et al. 2006 Carnegie-Mellon University librarians 100 interviews with graduate students from all disciplines represented at CMU (53% “science,” 36% “humanities” and 11% “business and policy” – CMU is a science-focused institution) Qualitative research interviews ran 20-30 minutes. Specifically focused on graduate students’ “information-seeking behavior”

  6. How is our study different? U.Va. has liberal arts focus – our sample may complement the CMU study, with more representation of humanities, sciences and social sciences 60-75 minute interviews – asked more open-ended questions, including questions about how students came up with their topic and about their writing process Asked more specific questions, including use of library catalog, as well as influence of professional organizations and library instruction

  7. Graduate Students at U.Va. Study sample represents 51% of the graduate student population

  8. Methodology Funding request through U.Va. Library R&D Committee/Library Administration IRB-SBS Approved Protocol – Spring 2009 Identified academic departments awarding Masters and Ph.D. (excluding Professional Schools: Business, Law, Medicine/Health Sciences) 287 volunteers 96 semi-structured interviews, Jun-Nov 2009 $20.00 Cavalier Advantage Card

  9. Interviews and Transcription

  10. Challenges with Protocol Multiple interviewers – sometimes certain lines of questioning were not pursued Allowed subjects to talk – sometimes resulting in time crunch or certain topics not covered Interpretation – we can only go on the words they said – if they didn’t mention Google – then we can’t assume they use it! Learning qualitative analysis with NVivo Time to transcribe interviews (5+ hours per interview)

  11. Data Collection and Analysis to Date Transcription of 35 interviews in NVivo (36%) Preliminary results based on analysis of subsample Emphasis on resources and how they are used

  12. What type of information do you need to support your research? “Generally books, monographs, then journal articles as well. And they are in various languages depending on the author. “ -8classics “I guess there's scores and recordings, and with books . . . and there are both musicological journals and more technical journals, and then--specifically with this subject, there are a lot of short-run, experimental arts magazines that have cropped up over the years . . .” -31music

  13. What types of materials do students need to support their research?

  14. Describe how you go about finding appropriate materials. “ADS [Astronomy Abstract Service] and arXiv. Astro-ph, yeah. Um, they, they, that has pretty much everything that you could imagine. If I were to run across something that wasn't on ADS, I don't know that I'd trust it. 'Cause all the journals post their stuff to there. So...” -47astronomy “[Google Scholar’s] usually my first stop and use keywords and then, from there, once I find a few kind of hits, I call them, you know, like magic bullet kind of article, I start. “ -60education

  15. How do graduate students begin their research?

  16. Where students begin their research – by discipline

  17. Do you find information using the Library’s resources or website? “Yeah, I always go to the library homepage, and--which annoys me, because it isn't organized the way that I want it to be. It's organized for all users and not just for me [laughs].” -25english “There have also been changes on the library webpage and it's changed enough over the past four years that every time I go there, I get lost, I'm like, okay, I don't know where anything is anymore, and so that's why I've stuck with Web of Science because I know where it is, it hasn't changed, it's quick and easy, and I'm just . . . I don't know.” -45envsci

  18. How is VIRGO used for research?

  19. How is VIRGO used for research? – by discipline

  20. How are library databases used?

  21. How are library databases used? – by discipline

  22. Subject Guide Use

  23. Subject Guide Use – by discipline

  24. Please talk more about how you use the internet to find information. “If Google can track the flu two weeks ahead of the CDC, it probably has some information on something I'm looking for. “ -40philosophy “I mean, this will probably be like the Watergate tapes, you should probably take this out--but even like Wikipedia, you know if you need like a pair of dates. God bless Wikipedia!“ -73religion

  25. Use of Google products – by discipline

  26. How do students use the internet for research?

  27. Do you use the bibliographies or reference lists from books/journals you already have to find related information? “Like I said, if there's a paper that's been out there for twenty years and only three people have cited it then maybe it's not the best article to read. It's better to read something else first or skim through something else first.” -68bme “And the last thing would be that in terms of Web of Science, the forward and backward searches - JSTOR, Soc Abstracts, EBSCO, ERIC-all of these other sources, these other databases, if you go to them, a lot of them now have the forward and backward search. “ -89sociology

  28. Citation Chaining – Bibliographies/Footnotes

  29. Citation Chaining – Use of “Times Cited”

  30. Citation Chaining – Use of “Times Cited” by discipline

  31. What do we know so far? • Library resources are important • 86% use subscription databases • 85% use VIRGO • Path to library resources not through website • 53% never use library subject guides • 44% use academic/library bookmarks • Known item searching important • When using both VIRGO and databases • Nearly all student follow citations

  32. What do we know so far? Use the internet to supplement their research with information unavailable from library Many graduate students unaware of key resources in their discipline – but may not be suffering All students mentioned their advisor playing a significant role Still a lot we do not know!!!

  33. Next Steps • Finish transcription; Standardize coding with NVivo • Determine how our results can be utilized by the University Libraries (annual surveys, individual subject librarians, etc.) • According to the results, the library is not failing the graduate student population. But are there ways in which we should change services to better integrate with their needs and academic stages?

  34. Questions? Rebecca Pappert Librarian for Life Sciences rap8k@virginia.edu Keith Weimer Reference/Instructional Technology Librarian kw6m@virginia.edu

  35. Questions? References Fleming-May, R., & Yuro, L. (2009). From Student to Scholar: The Academic Library and Social Sciences PhD Students’�Transformation. Libraries and the Academy, 9(2), 199-221. George, C. (2006). Scholarly use of information: Graduate students information seeking behavior. Information Research, 11(4), 1-23. Green, R., & Macauley, P. (2007). Doctoral Students’�Engagement with Information: An American-Australian Perspective. Libraries and the Academy, 7(3), 317-332. Jiang, M., Yeh, N., & Lin, C. P. (2009). A study of information seeking behavior of graduate students in continuing education program by utilizing of information horizon concept. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 45(1), 1-8. Sadler, E., & Given, L. M. (2007). Affordance theory: A framework for graduate students' information behavior. Journal of Documentation, 63(1), 115-141.

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