Research Party a Success

The Library Liaison Subject Specialists at the Eugene McDermott Library hosted their first Research Party to help students with their research projects and assignments last week. The informal setting, accompanied by coffee, tea, hot cocoa, and dessert offered a wonderful opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to get to know the librarians away from the reference desk. Librarians helped answer questions about finding research topics, calculating h-indexes, finding peer reviewed articles and empirical studies, and more!

The idea was the brainchild of Chris Edwards, Head of Library Research Services and Liaison to Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He thought that a research party would be a relaxing venue where students, faculty, and staff can drop in and talk informally about their research. “The Research Party was a great opportunity to connect with students without the anxiety of a formal interaction at a reference desk,” Chris said about the event. “Many students came for the snacks, but stayed to ask a question about books or databases available from the library.” In addition to answering questions, the librarians also helped researchers to set up their ORCID, H-Index, or find additional resources for a topic.

The other subject specialists in attendance were Dr. Ellen Safley, Dean of Libraries and Liaison for Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences, History and Literature; Loreen Henry, Head of Information Literacy and Instruction, Liaison for Management; Matt Makowka, Senior Research Librarian and Liaison for Arts, Humanities, and Technology; Alex Rodriguez, Senior Research Librarian, Liaison for Engineering and Computer Science; Sarah Dornback, Instruction Librarian and Liaison for Natural Sciences and Mathematics; and Holly Whistler, Instruction Librarian and Liaison for Interdisciplinary Studies.

The librarians hope to host more parties in the future to show students that the library, its staff, and services are part of their academic success. “I always enjoy talking with students about their research and hearing about their interests and ideas,” Holly Whistler said. “I’m excited to have more of these parties so we can keep getting to know students and let them know we’re here to support them.”

The library will be hosting a second research party on Wednesday, April 5th from 5 pm – 7 pm in the Atrium next to MC 1.204. The Student Success Center will also be available to answer questions and offer assistance. Drop-in, enjoy snacks, work on your research ideas and meet the supportive and knowledgeable staff!