Libraries 101 for International Students

Academic libraries have been increasingly active in developing programs and services which allow their educational mission to address the needs of an increasingly more diverse student population. In addition to the pressures of adjusting to a new environment and to the educational demands of a new school, international students must also adjust to an extensive and sometimes overwhelming library system, which can be quite different from what they are used to. The organizational structure of libraries, their services, collections, even their role and mission can differ from a country to another, thus turning libraries into intimidating places, which can keep students away until the critical moment when a paper or report that could not be found by searching the internet is needed for a thesis or project. By working closely with the academic departments and the administration of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), the Engineering Library in collaboration with the science libraries at Princeton University has implemented a range of instructional and educational programs tailored for international students with the scope of fully integrating the library resources and services in the students’ educational experience. Informally called “Libraries 101 for International Students” the initiative’s goal is to help international students reach a level of knowledge and comfort with the services and collections of the Engineering Library and the Princeton University Library system in general, that will allow them to use the extensive research collections, both print and electronic, and draw on the expertise of the subject librarians and bibliographers who can provide insight into resources found beyond the long lists of results retrieved by the internet search engines