On-Campus Graduate Survey: Comfort and Seeking Assistance with Research

As a group, you reported being comfortable with most aspects of research, except for "using advanced searching features in library databases" and "determining if the library has what you need."

You report asking for help fairly often with determining what the library owns, but not as much with using advanced searching features. Remember that the library offers many methods to contact the reference librarians for assistance.

We asked off-campus graduate students the same questions and asked faculty to rate the importance and student performance of these research skills; see their responses:
Faculty | On-Campus Graduates

Overall scores:

	Average score (5 = "Very Comfortable")	Percentage seeking help "Very Often" or "Somewhat Often"
Choosing and refining a research topic	4.13	9.6%
Choosing research databases	4.19	12.2%
Searching within research databases	4.19	17.1%
Using advanced searching features	3.26	13.7%
Determining if the library has what you need	3.88	23.9%
Evaluating information sources	4.08	19.2%
Citing sources correctly	4.07	15.3%
Using information ethically	4.57	4.3%

We welcome further input. Please email library@up.edu with your comments and suggestions.