Fast Vs. Thorough

It's a common scenario. Student approaches the reference desk and you think, fantastic, someone I can help learn how to learn. They ask you a question, and it's a complicated one. It's all about finding a journal, finding several articles - and it's not a simple topic, it's one that's going to require generating additional keywords, digging into descriptive subject vocabulary, and more than likely searching across databases.

About two minutes into your explanation of one of these tasks, which will inevitably help them in the end, you realize Student isn't listening. And in fact, here's a very large shocker - Student doesn't care.

Yikes.

What is one to do with Student, who doesn't care whether they have every resource out there or really whether it's even the best resource out there - they just want to have the assignment done?

In my experience it depends upon the scope of the assignment and how much they really need me. There are times, I'll admit that I try to get them a quick fix, while along the way adding as much education that might help them next time around as possible. In other cases, I realize that if they aren't interested in sitting with me, they'll have no hope of completing their assignment, in which case I tend to be more thorough, even if they act bored the entire time.

Is it wrong to cater to the fast?

I'm working on a guide for the freshman composition class, and playing around with titling it 'Find Four Things Fast'. Yes, it plays on that Google mentality, but I can't help but wonder how many of those people who show up at my reference desk have already spent four hours searching Google or the library databases unsuccessfully. By the time they come to me, yes, they want it fast! They've already been searching for four hours! Additionally, the library is fast. Or, rather, if you use it correctly, it's faster than Google for much information that's out there. "Find Four Things Fast" plays on that notion.

And truthfully? While I encourage people to spend days in the library if they want to, or to come and hang out with their friends if they want to, I don't want them to spend eight hours researching something that should have taken one! The guidelines on the worksheet will help them make that time brief, which makes for happy Students, and frankly, happy Librarians. Cause we like Happy People in the Library.

So far as I'm concerned, those are the only types that should be there!