Comprehensive Support for Graduate Students at Oscar Randenbaum Library (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Myself and all the other librarians that work at the Oscar Randenbaum Library can help graduate students in a variety of different ways. We can help with topic discernment, with composing a good research question, understanding how to effectively search and utilize the library research databases, and obtaining materials either through one of our electronic research databases or through interlibrary loan, and lots of help when it comes to scholarly citation and even

Speaker 2: copyright questions. Typically, students see me at two points during the process. First, as a faculty member within their coursework, depending on the track that the student is in, they will most likely have a class with me in the research method sequence or as a part of a course designed to help them develop chapter three of their dissertation and their IRB paperwork. If I don't see a student within the coursework sequence, I will usually engage with them in a consulting capacity as they're working to design qualitative or mixed methods related research components, whether that is a research question, a methodological approach, data collection, or data analysis. This usually happens via a one-on-one appointment. Generally, I enter the dissertation process for students as they start to really think concretely about the logistics of their data collection and analysis.

Speaker 1: I can help students succeed when it comes to writing and research because I'm not a content expert when it comes to education, but I'm a research expert, and so I come at topics and ideas from a slightly different perspective and can really help students hone into that question and get good laser focus on their topics and what they're looking for.

Speaker 2: When it comes to writing and research, I think that I simply provide students with some tools that they can use in order to foster their own success, and in particular with writing, the tools I provide are those that engage with writing as a daily habit, which is spending a minimum of 30 minutes a day writing and understanding that writing is a process of thinking. As far as research goes, one of the things that I offer is a fairly strong track record of publication in my own field, whether that's academic books or peer-reviewed journal articles. So my goal is to provide students with a toolkit that they can use to make informed decisions as consumers of research and also good decisions as producers of

Speaker 1: research. I take regular one-on-one appointments with students, whether that be in WebEx or in person. We sit down and discuss what they're working on, what their ideas are, what kinds of roadblocks or barriers they're experiencing, and I'm willing to work with students at any point during their research journey. There's a place for librarians and my research assistant at any point, whether they're just starting or getting close to publication.