Personal librarians for first-year students
Last fall, first-year student Helen Rudnicki received an intriguing email at her brand new utoronto address.
Signed by librarian Jacqueline Whyte Appleby, the message welcomed Rudnicki to the ÖŰżÚζSM and offered her something special â personalized help coming to grips with St. George Campusâs 42 libraries.
âI thought that was pretty cool,â says Rudnicki, an archeology major who attends New College. âA lot of my friends didnât go to the library at all, but I always had books. Thereâs a lot of material you canât get online.â
Thatâs exactly why U of T started the Personal Librarian Program, says Rita Vine, faculty liaison and information literacy co-ordinator for and administrative lead for the project: first-year students just didnât seem to be using the library.
âI came up with the idea after doing research on similar programs at Yale and Drexel University,â she says, adding that the John M. Kelly Library at U of T's St. Michaelâs College has run a similar project for several years and shared data with her.
During last yearâs pilot project, Vine and Appleby matched 1,000 incoming students with 10 librarians who work across St. George Campus â from Trinity College to Robarts Reference Department to OISE. About 200 students took up the offer of help, says Vine.
âThat ranks among the highest levels of take-up [among similar programs] that weâre aware of.â
The librarians explained everything from how to read a call number and write a citation to how to find non-academic services on campus. All contact was through email.
âA lot of the time I didnât know where to start at all,â says Rudnicki. âI was able to give the librarian a topic and she would help me narrow it down, give me places to look and [teach me] how to search.â
âStudents may not even know that they can ask for help,â says Vine. âBy creating an intentional connection to a librarian, weâre helping them meet one more person in the university who cares about their academic success.â
Vine wants to expand the program, but says there arenât enough librarians to reach out to all 7,000 first-year students in Arts and Science on the campus.
âWeâll require more administrative and librarian resources.â
In the meantime, 2,000 frosh were emailed this fall, and approximately 24 librarians are participating.
For students who havenât been assigned a personal librarian, Vine offers an insider secret.
âOne of my favourite âhiddenâ resources is a set of bibliographies on many subjects,â she says. âPrepared by experts, each item has an abstract that can help you figure out if the article is suitable for your assignment â a big time-saver for busy students. The trick is to look under âOxford Bibliographies Onlineâ in the library catalogue.â
Bonus: many paywall-protected articles are free when accessed through the library website.
This article originally appeared in the U of T Magazine. to read more U of T Magazine articles visit