The document discusses a research project at UCD Library aimed at understanding student and academic expectations regarding research activities related to assignments. It utilized ethnographic methods, including interviews and workshops, to identify the challenges students face and how libraries can better support their research skills. The findings highlight a gap between student practices and academic expectations, suggesting a need for improved collaboration between academics and library services.

1. Are they being served?
Reference Services
Student Experience
Project,
UCD Library
Jenny Collery and Marta Bustillo
College Liaison Librarians

2. Reference Desk Usage?
Service Models?
Reference desk transactions & online
information?

3. Library Centric

4. Student Centric

5. New Research Paradigm
➔What activities do
students undertake
when assigned an
essay, assignment or
project?
➔What do academic staff
define as good student
research?
Foster & Gibbons, 2007

6. Ethnographic & User
Experience Research
Methods
➔Academic Interviews
➔Customer Journey Map
Workshop (Students)
➔Photo Diaries
➔Student Interviews

7. Team Approach
Dr Marta Bustillo
Jenny Collery
Dr Amanda Doran
Avril Patterson
Client Services &
College Liaison
Team

8. Ethics Approval Process
8th November 2017
to
28th March 2018

9. Customer Journey Mapping Workshop
13th April 2018
N = 16
Law, Social Justice, Landscape Architecture, English, History, Medicine, Engineering, Irish,
Pharmacology, Social Science, Biomedicine, Genetics, Veterinary Medicine
Team: Saretta Gordon, Maolsheachlann O'Ceallaigh, Deirdre Ohle, Avril Patterson

10. A visualization of the series
of interactions you have
while attempting to research
and write your college
assignments

15. Student Experiences
worry, anxiety, satisfied, amazing, pressure,
motivation, succeeding, failure, confused,
relieved, worried, comfortable, overwhelmed,
confident, satisfied, relieved, stressed,
unsure, happy, productive, annoying, fun,
uncertain, thankful, nervous, hoping,
frustrated, panic, loving, inadequacy,
ambivalent

16. Academic Interviews
Mid-April to early May 2018
N = 9
Academics across all six colleges in UCD: Arts & Humanities, Business, Engineering &
Architecture, Health & Agricultural Sciences, Science, Social Sciences & Law
Team: Jenny Collery, Amanda Doran, James Molloy, Carmel Norris, Maolsheachlann
O'Ceallaigh, Diarmuid Stokes, Marta Bustillo

17. The rationale….
We want to find out what
students do when carrying
out research and also what
academics expect them to
do in order to plan library
services that successfully
meet users’ needs

18. 8 questions….
1. Do you teach undergraduate or postgraduate
modules?
2. What would you say are the hallmarks of a good
quality assignment?
3. How do you expect students to find information for
their assignments? What steps would you expect
them to take in undertaking this work?
4. What sources do you expect them to use? Do you find
that they use these sources?

19. 8 questions….
5. What are the common pitfalls you have found in how
students undertake research for their assignments?
6. What “stumbling blocks” do you see that your
students face in producing good quality assignments?
7. Do students receive any instruction or tutorials on how
to embark on research for their assignments?
8. In what way could the library assist your students to
develop the research skills needed for academic
assignments /research and improve their academic
performance?

20. What UCD academics said

21. I moved away from
the reading list only
to come back to it,
but I don’t want to
be too stuck to the
reading list at the
same time, too
prescriptive
I would say it’s well
researched, first of all... I
mean that it shows careful
evidence of reading of the
primary text[s] as well as
the secondary material. It’s
well argued and supported
with primary and
secondary evidence
I would tend to recommend either
Google Scholar, Science Direct ... also the
Web of Science ... at least from my
perspective you can pick up about 80 %
of what you want to find there…. as a
search engine

22. Actually the
resources are
really
good...sometimes
it’s hard to find
them on the
website
How often do I use
the library? For
accessing texts, yes
occasionally, but for
literature everything
is done online and I
think that is what
most students would
say as well

23. I put up links
to all the
library
videos
The library
connecting with
the lecturers
more to say ‘this
is what we have’

24. Preliminary themes of interest
Different set of expectations depending on the level of the modules,
from first year undergrad to MA or PhD
Concern over students’ lack of critical thinking skills and the fact
that they read less
Academics designing their own information skills training for their
students, using library resources
Lack of awareness of library resources
Need for a programme based, coordinated approach to information
skills training, with Colleges and the Library working together

25. Lessons learned from the
academic interviews

26. The interviews were a great tool to start
conversations with academics about student
training in information skills
Academics’ expectations of student assignments
are not necessarily centred on the Library
There was a clear gap between students’ and
academics’ perceptions of what was expected - can
the Library bridge this gap?
Transcribing and coding the interviews takes
longer than initially planned!

27. Questions?
Jenny Collery: jenny.collery@ucd.ie
Marta Bustillo: marta.bustillo@ucd.ie

28. Bibliography
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