[WEB4LIB] Student use of library web services - was: Library web site

[Kirsty Beveridge]

>I'm picking up anecdotal comment from teaching academics (from two 
>universities) that, much to their chagrin, their students are 
>ignoring ALL library services and relying on the big internet search 
>engines for research.


 does this include sites with webpac up and running? Do they link directly to
resources which are "free" eg government documents 
There is a myth that anything you want is available on the internet - it may
have a similar effect to people presuming that a large library will have better
holdings of X because of its size than the smaller library which specialises in
X.
Some people perceive libraries as putting barriers in their way - books are on
loan when they want them,  having to find them on the shelves.
Sitting at a keyboard is seductive - "one stop shop" effect, and also the
search engines apparently allow 'natural language' searching, whereas library
catalogues may seem to require more structured/formal use of language -
depending on how your subject headings indexes are constructed., and perhaps
how well you keep up with changes in professional vocabularies.  

These are just my thoughts - I work in a relatively small HE library; we often
have more people in the computer workshop than in the body of the library. 


Kirsty Beveridge
k.beveridge at norcol.ac.uk