One thing I sometimes struggle with is how much information to give students when they e-mail me with problems about their research. I know we are supposed to teach students to find information themselves, but sometimes it is just better to send someone an answer directly. I had a student who was in a class of mine this morning who e-mailed me later in the day with her question, and I sent her some information, basically the call numbers of the books that contained the government report she needed, around 4 article citations, a couple possible search strategies, and suggestions for further research. It probably wasn’t anything different than what she would have gotten if she’d come to the library tonight and asked me her question when I was at the reference desk, but it was much easier for her because it was all packaged up in an e-mail.

To some degree, I think teaching someone to ask a librarian for help when they need it is a good outcome for a library instruction class. So good for me!