Abstract
Librarians often wonder what resources students use for research and whether the library provides access to these resources. At the University of South Alabama (USA), students in the honors program must complete a senior thesis in order to graduate with honors. The library holds these theses, providing a convenient source of bibliographies for examination. Studying these theses provided an unobtrusive manner of investigation. While such theses do not represent the entire undergraduate population’s research and writing behavior, they provide a starting point for addressing the above question. Non-honors program students likely encounter the same difficulties in locating and using resources as honors students. The insights into citation behavior and library holdings of information cited in this sampling can then be used to inform decisions about library instruction and outreach to undergraduate students.
Publication Date
Spring 2012