Friday, January 20, 2006

The Library Gives Me a Headache

Dr. Betsy Barefoot, Co-Director for the Policy Center on the First Year of College, and Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Brevard College in Brevard, North Carolina, has an article in the online Chronicle Review, titled "Bridging the Chasm: First Year Students and Library. It is password protect, but us this link and scroll down for the article.

The campus library may historically be the centerpiece of institutional life on college and university campuses, but many first-year students think it is largely irrelevant to their lives. The reasons include the students' characteristics, attitudes, and prior experiences; the nature of first-year college courses; the lack of instruction on information literacy; and, perhaps most important, the availability of information 24/7 from online sources. Why walk to the library when all the information you could ever need is available at your fingertips in the comfort of your residence-hall room? Or so goes first-year student logic.

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