Does Telling Them to Ask for Help Work?

Abstract

The article seeks to answer the research question: are students who attend a library instruction session in which they are encouraged to ask for help at the library more likely to do so than students who do not attend such a session, or students who attend a session but are not encouraged to ask for help. The researcher designed a survey, the results of which did not show a statistically significant relationship between students who were encouraged by a librarian to ask for help, and students who did. The survey did, however, show a statistically significant, strong positive relationship between students who were encouraged or required by faculty to ask for assistance and students who did so. Implications of these results for library-based strategies to increase the proportion of students who obtain research help are discussed.