Saturday, January 05, 2008

Studying students

I don't think I blogged the free downloadable publication, a book which describes a project to address the research question "What do students really do when they write their research papers?" The researchers at the University of Rochester, USA, used some ethnographic techniques to illuminate this question, including asking students to take photographs and keep diaries. Indeed, the first editor is described as "Lead Anthropolgist" at the libraries. It is interesting both in terms of the research approach usd and the findings.

Foster, N.F. and Gibbons, S. (eds) (2007) Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/
downloadables/Foster-Gibbons_cmpd.pdf


There is also a 16 minute podcast about the study at http://blogs.ala.org/acrlpodcast.php

Photo by Sheila Webber: Barge on the Thames, London, December 2007.

No comments: