Research Partners, Teaching Partners: A Collaboration between FYC Faculty and Librarians to Study Students’ Research and Writing Habits

Abstract

In Spring 2012, instruction librarians collaborated with first year composition (FYC) faculty to study students’ research habits as they related to writing. We collected process narratives from students in the introductory FYC course at the beginning and end of the fall semester, and a group of librarians and FYC faculty coded them together. Although we did not achieve one of our initial research goals, we still gained valuable insight into how our students perceive sources and the research process. We applied what we learned to create new instructional materials and developed a valuable relationship with FYC faculty.

KEYWORDS:

• information literacy
• collaboration
• first year composition
• research process
• writing process