What students don't know...

You may already have seen this article in today's Inside Higher Ed, which reminds me of several things:

• We (faculty & librarians) assume our students know more about researching than they actually do.
• Most students have no idea what librarians do or how they can help with research based projects.
• Faculty teaching classes are the key to bridging the gap in terms of helping students find their way to librarians and library resources.

ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) is a multi-institution, ethnographic study of student research behavior, conducted in collaboration with anthropology faculty. Researchers "were surprised by the extent to which students appeared to lack even some of the most basic information literacy skills that we assumed they would have mastered in high school.”
Hopefully, as the new term starts, we can work together to help your students become better critical consumers and users of information.