For More Reading
Information referenced in this article can be found in these sources:
n "Students Who Love Research" appeared in the January/February
2013 issue of BizEd. It also can be found online at www.e-digitaleditions.
com/i/100231.
n Project Information Literacy's "How College Graduates Solve Information
Problems Once They Join the Workforce" by Alison J. Head was published
October 16, 2012. It can be found at projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_fall2012_
workplaceStudy_FullReport.pdf.
n "The Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and
Report" was written by Megan Oakleaf for the Association of College and Research
Libraries of Chicago, Illinois. It is available online at www.acrl.ala.org/value/?p=36.
n "Library Use and Undergraduate Student Outcomes: New Evidence for
Students' Retention and Academic Success" can be permanently accessed at
http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/143312.
n "Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century" by Thomas Davenport and D.J. Patil appeared in the October 2012 edition of Harvard Business
Review.
library use—as indicated by book
circulation, reference interactions,
web use, database searches, and so
on—correlates with higher grade
point averages.
There's already some evidence
that such a connection might
exist, according to "Library Use
and Undergraduate Student Outcomes," research conducted by
staff of the University of Minnesota Libraries and posted on the
Libraries and the Academy portal.
According to the study, "students
who use the library had an average
cumulative GPA 0.20 points higher
than students who did not use the
library." In addition, students who
used the library in their first semester were twice as likely to return
for their second semester as students who were not library users.
Mission for the Future
Business school graduates will need
to be adept at conducting research
and knowing where to turn for the
information they need, and it is
part of the mission of the academic
library to help them develop those
essential skills. As long as academic
libraries continue to develop appropriate collections, assist users with
their research, prepare students for
the 21st-century workplace, and
assess the quality of their services,
they will remain engaged partners
in the delivery of business education. While beautiful physical spaces
and printed books will always say
"library" to many of us, the reality
of the academic library will be even
richer and more complex as we
move forward.
Dan Gjelten is director of University Libraries for the University of St.
Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
50
January/February 2014
BizEd
Sam E dwar ds/G etty I mages
n "University of Washington Undergraduate Degree Recipients Five and Ten
Years After Graduation (2008): Frequencies and Cohort Differences" was
published by UW's Office of Educational Assessment in April 2009. It can be
accessed at www.washington.edu/oea/pdfs/reports/OEAReport0902.pdf.
