Short Videos or In-person Consultation? Exploring Library Orientation Formats with Graduate Occupational Therapy Students

Author(s) Bio

Mary Rickelman is a Research and User Services Librarian at AdventHealth University, a small health sciences university in Orlando, FL. She provides library orientations, library instruction, and reference assistance to students. When not helping students, she also maintains the resource guides and assists faculty with literature research. Mary has mentored other librarians through the Medical Library Association’s Colleague Connection program, and she is currently active in ACRL’s Instruction Section Research and Scholarship Committee. Dr. Chia-Wei Fan is an Associate Professor in the Master of Occupational Therapy program at AdventHealth University in Orlando, FL. Her clinical background includes mental health and school-based practice. At AHU, she teaches courses in occupational therapy theory, evidence-based practice, research, and analysis of occupational performance. Nationally, she serves as an editor for the American Occupational Therapy Association Productive Aging Special Interest Section and as a mentor in the AOTA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning program, where she helps advance occupational therapy education, support scholarly teaching, and promote high quality, evidence informed practice.

Keywords

library orientation, graduate student, occupational therapy, videos, in-person

Description of Proposal

Offering structured library orientation to incoming graduate students acclimates them to the resources and services of the library. Students do not always recognize the value of learning how to use the tools and materials available to them, which makes it important for the library team to market and share resources in as many ways as possible. General student orientation is usually provided for incoming students, but only a brief time can be allotted. Offering library orientation during class time is also a challenge because class time is reserved for course content. What other ways can the library team share about the library?

The library team strongly believes that being comfortable using the library, asking questions, and using available library resources supports student success. Library anxiety is also an issue for students, and having a higher comfort level with the library can reduce that anxiety. This poster shares the idea of assigning short videos or assigning an in-person consultation to learn about the library and its resources. An idea was suggested to split a class and have half view orientation videos and half meet with a librarian. A professor in the graduate occupational therapy program agreed to have one of her classes participate. This research seeks to answer three questions: 1). Do students remember more watching videos or meeting in-person? 2). What format do students prefer? and 3). Does either format do a better job? Using a pre- and post- quiz and survey, data were gathered to examine if there are any differences between the two formats. Students were also asked to share any thoughts or comments at the end of the survey.

Participants were sixty-eight graduate students in a Master of Occupational Therapy research course. Students chose either a video library orientation, which consisted of 12-short videos totaling approximately 38 minutes plus time to create accounts for Academic Writer and RefWorks, or a 50-minute in-person small group research consultation with a librarian focused on the exact same orientation contents. Both library orientation options introduced key databases, search strategies, library services, and ways to contact the library. Students were given three weeks to complete the orientation and to take a 10-item multiple choice knowledge quiz and a brief library comfort survey before and after the orientation. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare pre and post scores, and open-ended comments were reviewed for recurring themes.

Preliminary findings suggest that both formats led to significant gains in knowledge of library resources and comfort using the library, with students describing the orientation as helpful, confidence building, and useful for refreshing their skills and learning to navigate databases.

What takeaways will attendees learn from your session?

Attendees will learn that there are multiple formats to consider when providing library orientation to graduate students, including short instructional videos and in-person consultations. The poster presentation will highlight how library orientation remains an important strategy for helping students feel more comfortable with resources, reducing library anxiety, and increasing student confidence in using library services to support their academic success.

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Short Videos or In-person Consultation? Exploring Library Orientation Formats with Graduate Occupational Therapy Students

Offering structured library orientation to incoming graduate students acclimates them to the resources and services of the library. Students do not always recognize the value of learning how to use the tools and materials available to them, which makes it important for the library team to market and share resources in as many ways as possible. General student orientation is usually provided for incoming students, but only a brief time can be allotted. Offering library orientation during class time is also a challenge because class time is reserved for course content. What other ways can the library team share about the library?

The library team strongly believes that being comfortable using the library, asking questions, and using available library resources supports student success. Library anxiety is also an issue for students, and having a higher comfort level with the library can reduce that anxiety. This poster shares the idea of assigning short videos or assigning an in-person consultation to learn about the library and its resources. An idea was suggested to split a class and have half view orientation videos and half meet with a librarian. A professor in the graduate occupational therapy program agreed to have one of her classes participate. This research seeks to answer three questions: 1). Do students remember more watching videos or meeting in-person? 2). What format do students prefer? and 3). Does either format do a better job? Using a pre- and post- quiz and survey, data were gathered to examine if there are any differences between the two formats. Students were also asked to share any thoughts or comments at the end of the survey.

Participants were sixty-eight graduate students in a Master of Occupational Therapy research course. Students chose either a video library orientation, which consisted of 12-short videos totaling approximately 38 minutes plus time to create accounts for Academic Writer and RefWorks, or a 50-minute in-person small group research consultation with a librarian focused on the exact same orientation contents. Both library orientation options introduced key databases, search strategies, library services, and ways to contact the library. Students were given three weeks to complete the orientation and to take a 10-item multiple choice knowledge quiz and a brief library comfort survey before and after the orientation. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare pre and post scores, and open-ended comments were reviewed for recurring themes.

Preliminary findings suggest that both formats led to significant gains in knowledge of library resources and comfort using the library, with students describing the orientation as helpful, confidence building, and useful for refreshing their skills and learning to navigate databases.