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Undergraduate information commons have become pervasive in the academic library landscape. In recent years, librarians and administrators have come to identify the need for comparable commons’ spaces and services for graduate students. This chapter serves as a review of recently developed models of graduate commons—in this discussion referred to as Scholars’ Commons—as defined by an integration of physical learning spaces, personnel, and a dynamic availability of research support services that support assist graduate students throughout their academic life cycle. These provisions serve as the foundation for the development of enhanced library-supported graduate student success.

Still a rare commodity, existing models from selected institutional web sites were examined using a framework for analysis consisting of several criteria: new use of space; segmented services; partnerships; and new organizational structures. Through a synthesis of the commonalities prevalent in these systems, this chapter aims to provide recommendations for prospective Scholars’ Commons models and proposals for their development. Library organizations contemplating the development of a Scholars’ Commons need to consider the needs of their target population, potential new or reallocated spaces, feasibility of providing support and research technologies, and possible staffing models. As well, the authors consider the importance of library-based graduate student support that bolsters cross-divisional collaborative partnerships across the academy.

This paper aims to examine the creation of a workshop series designed to help graduate students obtain the needed library research skills.

Using feedback from graduate students, a library user education series of workshops was developed and later revised. Significant effort was made to apply effective marketing strategies to enhance the programs' success.

Graduate students are eager for workshops that are focused on developing the needed library research skills.

When developing a workshop series, feedback from the intended audience enriches the program. Furthermore, repeated fine‐tuning of content and publicity improves the final product.

This paper describes an innovative approach to develop and implement a graduate‐focused library instruction workshop series. The creative use of marketing strategies to incorporate ongoing user feedback and advertise the availability of sessions can significantly enhance the efficacy of a workshop series.

This paper aims to apply integrated academic literacies and threshold concepts constructs to the development of graduate student literacies. Western Washington University has developed a graduate peer-tutors program to advance integrated academic literacies and graduate student agency. Graduate peer-tutors are expert-outsiders (Nowacek and Hughes, 2015): expert in conversations about literacies and outsiders to disciplinary expertise. Peer-tutors augment a support ecosystem that includes faculty advisors, subject librarians and others. Libraries should lead innovative programs to develop integrated literacies, and librarians should leverage both subject and literacies expertise as part of an ecosystem of support.

Drawing on library, writing center and higher education scholarship, the author draws on research methodologies from writing center scholarship to explore models for integrated graduate student literacies. The author collaborates with graduate peer-tutors to connect theory and practice in the Graduate Research & Writing Studio (GRWS).

Peer-tutor models offer a valuable layer of support for graduate students engaged in thesis-writing. Peer-tutors, faculty advisors and subject librarians play important roles in advancing development of integrated literacies. The role of peer-tutors is unique in advancing integrated literacies, and addressing affective barriers and equity concerns.

Economic pressures have transformed higher education, ushering new populations into graduate programs. Opportunities to enhance inclusivity cannot be realized without support for development of literacies. Libraries should lead with innovative services that address barriers to graduate student success.

The author leverages the unique laboratory offered by the GRWS and engages graduate peer-tutors in connecting scholarship and practice. Drawing on contemporary theoretical lenses on literacies, she argues for libraries’ leadership of programs that support integrated graduate student literacies.

This study aims to investigate graduate student perceptions of electronic resources, their search behaviour, and their usage patterns.

Interviews were conducted in a research‐oriented university, and participants included 18 graduate students from three disciplines: humanities, social sciences, and science and technology.

Graduate students are frequent users of electronic resources, particularly during the thesis‐writing period. Graduate students of science and technology perceive electronic resources to be considerably more important to their research and studies than students of other disciplines do. Few students use the metasearch tool to retrieve heterogeneous electronic resources in the library. Very few students use alert services to obtain updated information.

The findings of the study could help university librarians acquire an enhanced understanding of the usage behaviour of graduate students on electronic resources.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the practice of information literacy by showing the role that extensive collaboration plays in a graduate off‐campus cohort program.

A case study of an innovative project that uses a collaborative approach to information literacy embedded into an off‐campus graduate cohort program offered in the field of graduate education.

In this paper, it is not stated or implied that the traditional library or librarian will be irrelevant to higher education in the twenty‐first century. Nor, however, is it suggested that the collaboration between (for example) librarian and graduate education programs that is necessary to stave off such obsolescence takes place inevitably. It is known that the literature and classroom observations to date clearly demonstrate that existing collaborative efforts between these two entities have been successful in benefiting graduate students. However, this model needs to become more pervasive in practice to take the profession effectively into the twenty‐first century.

This project was limited to one graduate program in the College of Education. However, it does have implications for other graduate programs as well as for undergraduate programs.

The results of this collaborative project indicate techniques and practices by means of which students will improve both information literacy and critical analysis skills.

This paper supports the idea that collaboration between librarians and graduate faculty members is an essential factor in enhancing an information literacy program at the university level.

This study was undertaken to determine the information‐seeking behaviour and use of information resources by graduate students at the University of Botswana. The overall purpose of the study was to determine what their information requirements are and determine their awareness of library services available to them. The study collected empirical data on the information requirements of graduate students. Data were gathered from 144 students out of 223 part‐time and full‐time graduate students registered. Findings indicate that guidance in the use of library resources and services is necessary to help students meet some of their information requirements. The study found that: journals, library books and textbooks are the most popular sources of information for course work and research and that students need to be taught how to use available library resources and services. Based on these findings, it was recommended that a questionnaire on students’ ability to use information resources be prepared and administered during registration to all masters students to establish their ability to use information resources. It was also recommended that a more aggressive information marketing strategy should be developed at both subject librarian and departmental level to create awareness among graduate students on the available

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of information resources in the research papers of the graduate students in Library and Information Science (LIS) at Kuwait University.

The methodology chosen for this paper is the bibliometric method by way of citation count of the references found in the literature review papers of LIS graduate students at Kuwait University by identifying the preferred form of publications, retrieval method, time span, subject distribution, and the most cited journals.

It is shown that the majority of students used journal articles, web pages, and books as the most preferred form of resources. Their preferred method of retrieval was the printed format. Time span of the most used citations is from three to ten years. They mostly used traditional library journals such as Bulletin of MLA, Library Review, The Electronic Library, Library Management, and College and Research Libraries.

The quantity and quality of citations were reviewed and approved by the student advisor, and the sample was drawn from a population of 74 papers based on the availability of original papers.

The findings in this paper provide important insights for the academic library administration to take appropriate measures to achieve a higher level of awareness and skill by the users.

Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the challenge of adding new services, the explosion of information, and the electronic revolution have complicated (and sometimes compromised) the delivery of quality services. In response to many universities' growing commitment to offer nontraditional degree programs, reference staff are also assuming more responsibility for night and weekend instruction.

This study aims to answer the following questions about humanities graduate students: what are the characteristics of the documents cited in their theses? Where and how do they obtain those citations? Do students use and cite electronic resources? Do students favour electronic resources over paper versions?

The study's participants were 20 humanities graduate students. Following an analysis of the citations in their theses, list‐checking and follow‐up interviews were conducted.

The results showed that these humanities graduate students cited considerably more print materials than electronic resources. Most of the documents cited were supplied by the university library. Only a small proportion of the documents were available in electronic format either from the university library or from the internet. The availability ratio of journals was higher than that of books. Students' acceptance of e‐journals was higher than that of e‐books.

The findings of the study could help researchers and librarians gain a better understanding of how humanities graduate students use electronic resources.

Investment in graduate education is costly in various ways so completion success is a big concern for universities and stakeholders. Largely the graduate educational landscape moves along a commonly structured path from acceptance to graduation. Despite many having successfully attained the award, the research literacies that signal doctoral achievement remain obscure and scholars continue to struggle with developing clear and tangible measures for the competencies that represent attainment of the degree. Feedback gathered from faculty at a large research institution through a series of semi-structured interviews illustrated the challenge departments have to effectively communicate what it takes to get through graduate education. As a result students still have a difficult time understanding the complexity of graduate training. This study views graduate education from the lens of intellectual journeys, as opposed to the research lifecycle, as a way of uncovering distinct disciplinary discourse practices and offering libraries critical points to align services using this framework.

The methodology is highly flexible and adaptable to many contexts besides graduate education. This study takes a different approach from previous studies in its framing of discussions with academic faculty, using journey maps, to focus on the intellectual journeys of graduate students. Faculty from different disciplines participated in one-on-one, hour-long interviews. Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed, and then coded into NVivo. Iterative review on the data continued until themes emerged. The data gathered were used to compile a detailed map of the processes and requirements that make up graduate education. This approach to the data helped to identify what faculty perceive as the greatest struggles for graduate students and provide evidence of the key places within the intellectual journeys of graduate students.

This paper provides a discussion of graduate student personas revealed through intellectual journeys, assesses the issues students encounter, shares critical time points and key places within these intellectual journeys where significant development occur, and suggests how libraries can and should connect with graduate committee members to establish missing support structures. Practical suggestions for library support are given for the areas where students struggle most. These critical services can be aligned to key developmental phases that will not only positively impact the time to completion but also retention.

First, the methodology discussed is highly flexible and adaptable to many contexts besides graduate education. Second, librarians adopting this methodology can generate their own editable journey maps not only to offer the most critical services but these tools also double as visual communication and negotiation tools for graduate students and their mentors during graduate training. Third, previous research has suggested that the most instrumental factor for graduate students completing their degree was the concept of forward progress. Framing the graduate experience and orienting library graduate support through the lens of disciplinary intellectual journeys achieves an action-oriented approach that supplements and addresses structural inequities by providing consequential support at meaningful points in a student’s journey thus allowing students to make forward progress and ultimately lead to faster completion rates.