Librarian as proximal other : an exploratory study of nontraditional graduate students' perceptions of their information needs

Abstract

Reports on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 11 nontraditional graduate students about their attitudes to academic libraries and librarians, understanding of the academic research process and perceived need for bibliographic instruction. Participants were adults, usually novice researchers, and included minority and international students. The majority are making little use of the university library due to time constraints, size and layout of the collection and unfamiliarity with technology. Significant value is placed on human support. Bibliographic instruction sessions are not meeting their diverse needs. Higher levels of staffing and service, targeted collections, affective instruction sessions, and staff development programmes are suggested.