Jones, Lynne and Stephanie Willen Brown. "Does Forcing Students to Ask for Help Work? Assessing the Effect of Requiring Term Paper Consultations." Librarians' Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill annual meeting, March 2015. Stephanie has worked with students in Jim Hefner's JOMC 424 (Electronic Media Management) class, spending more and more time with his students. In spring 2014, he began *requiring* students to meet with a librarian, rather than encouraging them to do so, as they prepared to write their 12-15 page research paper. He had tried all manner of encouragement with little success; requiring students to meet with a librarian was much more successful. In fall 2014, we received IRB approval to survey Hefner's students to assess if their meeting with us had an effect on their confidence in writing the paper (somewhat) and they perceived it would have an effect on meeting with a librarian in the future (they said it did). This presentation highlights our research findings and discusses our plans for future interactions with Hefner's students. Takeaway message: Tell faculty to require students to meet with a librarian!

1. Does Forcing Students to Ask
for Help Work?
Assessing the Effect of Requiring
Term Paper Consultations
Lynne Jones
SILS Graduate Assistant @ Park Library
lynneje@live.unc.edu
Stephanie Willen Brown
Librarian @ Park Library
swbrown@unc.edu

2. Information Literacy in the Major:
JOMC 424 Media Management &Policy

3. Consults: Who & What
Photo of Stephanie Brown by JOMC student Jessica Porter
Shelby
Julia

4. Non-Survey Metrics
20% 28%
76% 83%
Spring
2013
Fall 2013 Spring
2014
Fall 2014
Library Appointments
as % of Class Enrollment
177 251
329
506
Spring 2013 Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Fall 2014
Visits to Course Page for
JOMC424

5. Data Consistent with
Pellegrino
“… students who are encouraged by a faculty member
to ask a librarian for help with research are
significantly more likely to do so than those who
are not.”
Pellegrino, 2012, p. 275

6. Survey Questions
19 responses of 39 who met with a librarian
 Had you met with a librarian for other assignments?
 Did you meet with a librarian for this assignment?
 When did you meet with a librarian?
 Did meeting with a librarian help you…
 After meeting with the librarian, did you feel more …
 How likely are you to meet with a librarian for help on
future papers?

7. When We Met with Them
Our data:
 4 students came ≥ 2 weeks before
the paper was due
 17 students came the week before
 18 students came the week the paper
was due
Survey results:
 Before starting to research 5% (n=1)
 After doing some research 68% (n=13)
 After doing most of my research 26% (n=5)
November, 2014
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 Paper Due Nov. 13

8. What We Helped With;
How Helpful Were We?
Find Relevant Articles
Clarify Your Topic
Write Your Paper
5%
11%
11%
11%
37%
47%
63%
63%
37%
16%
Not Helpful Somewhat Helpful Helpful Very Helpful

9. How Students Felt
Photo by Mark Perry
Worried Optimistic
Stressed
Prepared
Confused
Confident

10. Kuhlthau’s
Model of the Information
Search Process (ISP)
Kuhlthau, 2004, p. 82

11. Outcomes
 100% of respondents say they are “likely” or “very
likely” to meet with librarian in the future.
 Library anxiety
 Paper writing anxiety

12. Student Conclusions
“I am really glad this was required to
write the research paper. It really
helped me a lot for this paper and will
help me in the future.”
“Even meeting just briefly helped me to
more effectively research my paper, and it
ultimately saved me a lot of time and effort
that I could then devote to actually writing
the paper.”

13. Future:
Continued Collaboration
 Instructor changed
assignment
 Modify instruction
timing, format
 Emphasis on writing
help
 Repeat survey
 Expand assessment?
! Tell faculty to require students come to library !

14. Questions?
Presenters
Lynne Jones
SILS Graduate Assistant
Park Library
lynneje@live.unc.edu
Stephanie Willen Brown
Librarian @ Park Library
swbrown@unc.edu
Bibliography
 Pellegrino, C. (2012).
“Does Telling Them to
Ask for Help Work?”
Reference & User
Services Quarterly,
51(3), 272-277
 Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004).
Seeking Meaning: A
Process Approach to
Library and Information
Services. Libraries
Unlimited, 2004