Recalibrating library research support workshops for graduate students: Addressing skill-gaps through targeted, collaborative workshop design
Start Date
3-17-2026 1:00 PM
End Date
3-17-2026 1:30 PM
Keywords
graduate students, research support, andragogy, library services, workshops
Description of Proposal
Creating library support for graduate services can and should take many forms to meet the specific and varied needs of the student populations and graduate programs at any given institution. However, there are often common threads and needs that can be met through some carefully targeted centralized library services. We will present our approach to providing a suite of workshops that provide skills and transferable knowledge across multiple graduate student needs at our institution, where the majority of graduate students are pursuing professional graduate degrees.
Three challenges that we aimed to address with our workshop series:
A perception that library services are “not for graduate students”: undergraduate tutoring and the (predominantly) undergraduate-serving writing center have a prominent footprint in the library building, there is therefore a perception that the spaces and services are all tailored to undergraduate needs. Graduate services are less visible – 1:1 consultations with research librarians and collaborations with professors on theses support are library services that aren’t immediately obvious when touring the space.
Scheduling challenges for graduate and professional students: most library service hours map to the undergraduate course schedule, potentially suggesting that services are not intended for graduate students enrolled in professional programs offered in the evenings, weekends, or online.
Skills-gaps due to assumption of graduate readiness: in-depth literature review, data collection and assessment, and publication skills are not frequently taught or required in undergraduate library support services, but support is often not provided at the graduate level because “graduate students should know this” - there is therefore a potential for a skills-gap in graduate library research-literacy.
We propose to share a 50-minute presentation outlining how we are addressing these challenges through offering graduate research skills workshops that provide a (re) introduction to crucial graduate skills, including literature review, citation management, and data collection and management, and post-graduation research and publication.
We are ensuring that these workshops are specifically tailored for graduate students through a combination of targeted naming of programs to differentiate from the undergraduate tutoring support services, advertising directly to graduate students, and providing workshops in the evenings and lunch breaks to accommodate graduate student schedules.
We have also engaged in collaboration with graduate student-leaders to co-design appropriate workshop content, resulting in the delivery of four literature review workshops in Fall 2025; and workshops for data collection, citation management, and post-graduation publication and research are being planned for Winter and Spring based on feedback from graduate students.
Delivering graduate workshops also required a critical evaluation of our teaching to ensure our delivery, content, and pacing reflected best practices in andragogy to best serve our graduate students’ needs. While some of the workshop content overlaps with skills we teach across the curriculum - search strategies, critical evaluation of resources, introduction to academic library resources - we reimagine and recalibrate materials and delivery for a graduate student population and their needs. Initial feedback and attendance has been positive, and has also led to an increase in the use of existing library services by workshop attendees.
Recalibrating library research support workshops for graduate students: Addressing skill-gaps through targeted, collaborative workshop design
Creating library support for graduate services can and should take many forms to meet the specific and varied needs of the student populations and graduate programs at any given institution. However, there are often common threads and needs that can be met through some carefully targeted centralized library services. We will present our approach to providing a suite of workshops that provide skills and transferable knowledge across multiple graduate student needs at our institution, where the majority of graduate students are pursuing professional graduate degrees.
Three challenges that we aimed to address with our workshop series:
A perception that library services are “not for graduate students”: undergraduate tutoring and the (predominantly) undergraduate-serving writing center have a prominent footprint in the library building, there is therefore a perception that the spaces and services are all tailored to undergraduate needs. Graduate services are less visible – 1:1 consultations with research librarians and collaborations with professors on theses support are library services that aren’t immediately obvious when touring the space.
Scheduling challenges for graduate and professional students: most library service hours map to the undergraduate course schedule, potentially suggesting that services are not intended for graduate students enrolled in professional programs offered in the evenings, weekends, or online.
Skills-gaps due to assumption of graduate readiness: in-depth literature review, data collection and assessment, and publication skills are not frequently taught or required in undergraduate library support services, but support is often not provided at the graduate level because “graduate students should know this” - there is therefore a potential for a skills-gap in graduate library research-literacy.
We propose to share a 50-minute presentation outlining how we are addressing these challenges through offering graduate research skills workshops that provide a (re) introduction to crucial graduate skills, including literature review, citation management, and data collection and management, and post-graduation research and publication.
We are ensuring that these workshops are specifically tailored for graduate students through a combination of targeted naming of programs to differentiate from the undergraduate tutoring support services, advertising directly to graduate students, and providing workshops in the evenings and lunch breaks to accommodate graduate student schedules.
We have also engaged in collaboration with graduate student-leaders to co-design appropriate workshop content, resulting in the delivery of four literature review workshops in Fall 2025; and workshops for data collection, citation management, and post-graduation publication and research are being planned for Winter and Spring based on feedback from graduate students.
Delivering graduate workshops also required a critical evaluation of our teaching to ensure our delivery, content, and pacing reflected best practices in andragogy to best serve our graduate students’ needs. While some of the workshop content overlaps with skills we teach across the curriculum - search strategies, critical evaluation of resources, introduction to academic library resources - we reimagine and recalibrate materials and delivery for a graduate student population and their needs. Initial feedback and attendance has been positive, and has also led to an increase in the use of existing library services by workshop attendees.
What takeaways will attendees learn from your session?
• Identify potential barriers graduate students face when engaging with library services.
• Learn about potential institutional assumptions about graduate research readiness.
• Apply andragogical principles to design or modify graduate-focused workshops.
• Learn outreach and collaboration strategies to improve their graduate services.