No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Internationella studenter och referensarbete En fenomenografisk studie av högskolebibliotekariers uppfattningar av referensarbete gentemot internationella studenter
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
In their mission or goals statements, most universities declare their commitment to promoting a multicultural campus. A multicultural campus can only come about with the creation of an environment that provides the support and encouragement that allows for academic growth and success for international students. Reference librarians serve a special role as information providers and can play a significant part in ensuring the academic success of these students. To achieve this, we must first increase our basic understanding of the cultural and economic impact of international students at a national and university level. Further, recognizing the unique pressures under which these international students function will increase awareness and help us to position ourselves to effectively meet their information needs. This paper will describe obstacles and problems international students generally deal with in choosing to pursue studies abroad and then suggest practical strategies for overcoming these problems and providing effective reference services.
International adult learners constitute a very large percentage of the international student and scholar population in the United States. The ability of this adult group to use libraries is hampered not only by their language, cultural and educational barriers, but also by librarians' limited understanding of their differences in learning styles. The relationship between learning styles and the methods of instructing them in library use is addressed in this paper. Recommendations for training and instruction of librarians on meeting the needs of this culturally diverse group are also provided.
In the past decade, increasing enrollment of international students at universities and colleges in North America has prompted the exploration and documentation of the issues related to library use by this group. The characteristics and difficulties faced by these students have been studied by Liu and Allen.
This study of native and non-native English-speaking university students showed that the non-native students visited the library more frequently and for a greater variety of reasons than their counterparts. Findings also revealed that international students may experience significantly greater problems adapting to and using the library than do their United States counterparts, and likewise a greater anxiety. (AEF)
This study was designed to examine the difficulties of students from developing countries in using American libraries. Fifty-four, mostly Asian, students studying at the University of California, Berkeley, were interviewed. The results reveal that these students encountered numerous problems in using their school's libraries. The problems included insufficient English proficiency, making it difficult to understand library terminology and policy; unfamiliarily with American libraries' classification system, subject headings, reference works, and open stacks; and confusion when online catalogs and databases retrieve too many results. Students in natural sciences usually had fewer difficulties than those in humanities and social sciences. Others who encountered fewer difficulties were those who were more proficient in English and whose home countries were more strongly influenced by American culture. This paper also discusses the possible causes of plagiarism. Recommendations are offered for improving library services for foreign students.
The authors aim to present and compare findings from
a phenomenographic investigation into conceptions of
information literacy in two populations: academics in
English and Marketing disciplines teaching at British
universities. These were chosen as examples of, respectively, soft-pure and soft-applied disciplines.We
begin by defining information literacy and briefly setting
our research in context. We explain the nature of research using the phenomenographic approach, and describe our sample and methods. We present firstly, the four qualitatively different conceptions of information literacy held by the English academics, and then the seven conceptions held by the Marketing academics. Key differences between the conceptions held in the two disciplines are discussed, in particular relating differences to characteristics of soft-pure and soft-applied disciplines. The authors conclude that
study of the differences between the conceptions held by the two disciplinary groups can illuminate and guide information literacy initiatives.