LITS Student Research & Technology Needs: Student Focus Group Notes
Submitted by Heather Do ’07 and Nga Bui ‘06
Two student focus groups sessions were held on Wednesday, April 13 and Thursday, April 21; we had total of nine students interviewed.
All of nine students who were interviewed use the information commons and the main library in some shape or form. They all know and heard of the [technology] workshops, yet only 2 out of 9 people have attended one of the workshops. Most of the introduction to the scholarly journal and basic research steps they have gotten was through the courses the students were taking, and only one of the students went up to the reference desk to ask for a help. Only small amounts explore the usage of library by the self-exploration.
The two main issues raised were the time and awareness. All the students wanted to take workshops, yet they either said there was no time, or they did not know about them. Some of the suggestions regarding the workshop were to advertise more, and to hold it more often. Some of the ways to advertise are to get the tent brochures in the dining halls, and post schedules or have them available in hard-copy. Students wanted learn more actively in TelNet, Dreamweaver (or other webpage making programs), and digital video editing. Also, another suggestion was to post the reference librarian’s hours and their specialty so that they may ask for help in more depth.
Overall, the technology in the library was commented as good and satisfying, and somewhat user-friendly. When there is library tour, going into more detail, especially about the main reference rooms and information commons were suggested. Other suggestions were the 24 hour library, snack bars where students can take a break, having longer Ethernet cord, and strengthen and broaden the wireless area.
All of the students emphasized the importance and the need for the technology and the workshops that were offered, and maybe broaden the knowledge. Yet they didn’t know specific workshops or the topics that should be broaden or deepened. Only one student knew about the information fluency class over the J-term. Others stated that even if they knew about it, they would not have taken the course because it is during the J-term. They do think this information is mandatory, yet only one student said that it should be required to take a class if such class was to be offered. Last suggestion was to have the copy machine to have the option of double sided copy.
After interviewing students I realized students just are not aware about the things in LITS. They may be interested, but not interested enough to figure out or to explore or even invest time to learn. If this is the case with general population of the students at Mount Holyoke, it is good to embed the topics that were covered in the information fluency class. However, if the level of knowledge is accounted to the teaching, it may be hard to conduct such class. This may not be possible, but it would be awesome to have TV monitor with what is going on the library that day, and maybe have some sort of advertising about the LITS.