Show Them What They Need to Know (It’s For Their Own Good!): Our Adventure in Creating a Library Open House for Graduate Students

Abstract

Where are the graduate students?  A few reference librarians were again discussing the graduate students at our campus.  The students did not sign up for graduate workshops held during the spring and fall semesters (literature review, annotated bibliographies, advanced research techniques, etc.), they did not drop by during office hours; yet when they called or stopped by the reference desk they were often amazed and thrilled at the resources and information the librarians provided them.  How do we get graduate students into the library, or attend office hours, or sign up for workshops?  We decided upon a library open house for graduate students on our campus.  How did we create the event?  What mistakes did we make?  What would we change?