It’s the second week of spring semester, and things at
colleges are a little different in the spring compared to the fall. For starters, there are fewer students. While some students graduated or transferred
at the end of fall semester, there are far more who don’t attend classes in the
spring semester for other reasons.
Usually this is a result of a GPA disaster in fall, but sometimes
students do fine academically but have family situations that prevent or delay
their return.
Students who do return usually start studying earlier in the
semester. We are certainly seeing more
students using the library for this during breaks between their classes than we
did in the fall. Spring classes are
usually more advanced than those in the fall, so there’s an increased
workload. Successful students now
realize they need to review class notes every day instead of just before
tests. They also see the benefit of
doing the assigned reading in the textbook before class, so they understand
more of the lecture the first time they hear it.
In the spring semester, the vast majority of people on
campus are familiar with the campus environment. This means that in general, everyone knows
the names of the buildings, where to park, who’s in what department, and how to
get whatever it is accomplished. In the
fall, library staff seems to spend the first three weeks of the semester giving
directions to various buildings and showing students (and sometimes new staff
members!) how to navigate eTC.
Because most students have been here for at least one
semester by now, faculty tend to think that the students remember EVERYTHING
from last semester. Librarians are often
approached by students who need help and sheepishly admit, “I knew how to find
books last semester, but I forgot”. It’s
important to remember that “student semesters” are different from “instructor
semesters”, like “dog years” are much longer than “people years”. Instructors know that students learned
something in a pre-req course last semester and they expect them to apply it
flawlessly now, five months later.
If you knew how to use TCTC’s library last semester but seem
to have forgotten what to do this semester, please ask a member of the library
staff for help! Alternatively, you can
watch a quick video for a refresher on whatever skill needs polishing on the
library’s Instruction Video” page:
Sue Andrus
Information Literacy Librarian
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