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A Toolkit for
Reframing Services
for International
Students
Information Literacy Summit
April 10, 2015
John Dorr, Pattie Piotrowski, Yi Han
Background: international students
International students make up what
percentage of your user population?
What are the primary reasons for providing
services?
85%
23%
15% 23% 7%
46%
16%
26% of participants’ reported that their
strategic plans include services, programs
or activities for international students
Do you know?
Are international
students part of
your university’s
strategic plan?
How do you identify service and resource
needs for your international students?
Orientation and Tours:
Set up stations for library tour
Pre-written questions for attendees to read
Writing and Citing Assistance
Partner with the
writing center on
campus
Train
librarians/students on
3 leading questions
Writing center 2x per
week in the library
Education and Research
When teaching international
students…
Expect silence in class
Under-developed
research skills
Critical thinking and “Intellectual property”
NOT common concepts
When teaching international
students…
Engage critical thinking
activities
Avoid plagiarism
Thesaurus & translation
“What questions do you have?”
“Do you have any questions?”
Assess
Update your
own
knowledge
Partner with those in the know to
consult on your international population
Redesign…
a separate orientation for
international students
Offer
Information
literacy
instruction
sessions
Provide online resources
Bilingual or multilingual is welcoming
Hire student employees
Build multilingual collections
Assign a person or share staff duties
Promoting services
Challenges
Staff
training
Understanding
of American
educational
expectations
Language
barrier
Staff
The Road
Ahead
Funding
Cataloging books
in other language
Level of
information
fluency
Increasing
instruction
requests
Our study on “International Students at CARLI institutions:
services, outreach and staff” is supported by a Consortium of
Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) research
subsidy.
“Brazil Science without Borders Undergraduate Program.” Institute of International
Education.
http://www.iie.org/Programs/Brazil-Science-Without-Borders/
“International Students: Enrollment Trends.” Institute of International Education.
http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/InternationalStudents/Enrollment-Trends/1948-2012
Lewin, Tamar. “Taking More Seats on Campus, Foreigners Also Pay the Freight.” New
York Times, 4 February, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/education/international-students-pay-topdollar-at-us-colleges.html?_r=2
“Trends in Academic Employment for Doctoral Scientists and Engineers.” Science and
Engineering Indicators 2012. National Science Foundation.
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/c5/c5s3.htm
Thank you
John Dorr, Assistant Head of Research and Information
Services, Northwestern University
Yi Han, International Student Library Services Liaison and
Instruction Librarian, Illinois Institute of Technology
Pattie Piotrowski, Assistant Dean for Public Services,
Illinois Institute of Technology
Interested in participating in future interviews about
services to international students? Contact us.