Retaining students by embedding librarians into undergraduate research experiences
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify an important area for librarians to positively impact student retention.
Design/methodology/approach
This programmatic and conceptual piece describes how embedding librarians into the growing enterprise of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) lays a framework for a context in which libraries and librarians directly contribute to the retention of undergraduate students.
Findings
Librarians are capable of directly contributing to the retention of students. While their efforts, it is contended, contribute routinely and to the actual retention of students, it is difficult for their efforts to register in the assessment of retention used by administrators. This discrepancy can be solved if librarians play a more explicit (and quantifiable) role in retaining students.
Research limitations/implications
UREs are a growing, but generally untapped trend for librarians; however, because UREs generally correlate with academic success and student retention, they offer librarians a useful entry point to contribute to the academic mission of colleges and universities, and in a measurable way.
Practical implications
Embedded librarianship poses a number of hurdles for its practitioners; however, it also has the potential for libraries and librarians to become more explicitly connected to overall institutional goals and strengthen their positions in the academy more broadly.
Social implications
Improving the scientific literacy of undergraduate students and aiding them on their path toward graduation is meaningfully enhanced through the embedding of librarians into the college curriculum.
Originality/value
Systematically embedding librarians into UREs is not strongly represented in the literature.
Keywords
Citation
A. Knapp, J., J. Rowland, N. and P. Charles, E. (2014), "Retaining students by embedding librarians into undergraduate research experiences", Reference Services Review, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 129-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-02-2013-0012
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited