Workshops are being held at Florida Gulf Coast University’s library, yet very few students are attending.
Each of the 11 workshops is geared for students in their field of study. They range from “Finding Stats in a Flash” to “Navigating Business Databases.”
“It’s just the coolest thing ever,” said Diana Peguese, the FGCU senior library technical assistant. “[The librarians] show you their featured database and how you can apply that to your major.”
These workshops are not new to the library. They’ve been offered to students each semester for more than seven years.
Although this is a long-standing practice, students are still unaware of these workshops.
“I didn’t even know about this,” said Kassidy Klump, a junior majoring in biology. “[I’ve learned to research] basically through trial and error. I would bring a sample of something to my teacher and be like, ‘Hey, does this look right?’ and they would say, ‘No. You need to tweak this, [and] you’re not doing this properly.’ I had to learn through experience.”
On average, each workshop consists of two to three students.
“Not a good amount of students show up,” said Kay Oistad, the head reference and business librarian at FGCU.
The librarians are making changes to inform students about the workshops, while motivating them to attend a course.
“To raise awareness we’ve placed posters in residence halls, on bulletin boards and on the Access Televisions around campus,” Oistad said.
In addition, fewer workshops are being offered.
“We also tried to reduce the time in the hopes that students would commit to coming,” Oistad said.
Some students are aware of the workshops but still prefer to meet individually with a librarian instead of attending a session.
“I haven’t attended any of them, but I have heard of them,” said Lyne Dufort, a senior majoring in health science. “Some people like group settings and learn that way, but I’m the type of person who needs one-on-one training and help. I have an appointment with the librarian to do further research.”