Why should we go through so much effort and agony to teach undergraduate students to use library-provided subscription databases when the vast majority of them will never again have access to those databases once they graduate?
I don't work with undergraduates, so my opinion has limited bearing on the question, but thinking of myself at that time---oh, yes, was I ever ignorant of and uninterested in databases!
I can't even remember if we had databases. I do remember looking up articles in some sort of index (and then going down to journal storage to locate the full text), so there must have been some.
I seem to recall they all looked exactly alike, on these grim orange-on-black screens at terminals that were also used for the catalogue, and nothing else. So either branding was not big, or my library indexed articles in the catalogue.
Or my unreliable brain is feeding me erroneous messages about the past, which is also entirely possible.
The point being, I had pretty much no clue about database search skills. I did OK in college, so maybe that was fine. It seems that the limited level of clue I had (see keyboard, type in keywords, probably) was sufficient to my information needs at the time, since I did graduate.
And it's not as if the librarians weren't there if I'd ever thought to ask for advice.
I think a related question would be, what's the alternative to teaching students? Just pointing at the library home page and telling them to call if they need you?
Could work. I mean, we know most of them will never take full advantage of the advanced features that way, but they probably won't if you haul them through library orientation and tell them about it, either, because they're distracted and don't really care and it's not useful information until they actually need it.
At which point, if they think of it, they can call you.
"We rented a giant mansion full of awesome magical information rooms, but most people just bumble around in the front hallway. Oh well. If they want directions to more stuff, they can always ask, plus, there's a lot of decent stuff in the front hallway."
The second part of the question, the fact that most people will not have this kind of database access once they graduate, also caught my eye.
I'm not sure how serious it is. I mean, whether or not something is valuable long-term is often irrelevant to whether or not it's valuable now, so what does the fact that they'll probably never use these databases again have to do with it?
I spent a lot of time working on formatting references in MLA style as an undergraduate, which I've pretty much never been called upon to do since (and which we now have software to handle, mumble mumble kids these days don't know how good they have it etc. etc.).
Heck, I spent plenty of time and effort just learning my way around campus, figuring out class and dining schedules, remembering peoples' phone numbers--that's stuff I'll definitely never use again!
That doesn't mean it wasn't energy usefully expended at the time, on my part and on the part of all the people who printed up schedules, posted notices, made study guides available, and so forth.
So if trying to teach students search skills means some of them do a little better in their courses, than I don't really care whether or not they ever use a database again after they graduate. If it helps them while they're in school, that seems like help enough.
But as far as the question of whether or not teaching database search skills does actually mean some students do better, or whether even if some do, enough do to make it worth the effort, I don't know.
Certainly the database designers are working hard to put enough stuff in the front hallway of the mansion that people can get something useful without knowing how to get to the other rooms.
Maybe they've done a good enough job that we (meaning, again, people who work with undergraduates, since that was the question) can leave it to them. (Graduate students must obviously be thoroughly indoctrinated with database search instructions: it's just sound policy.)
Yeah, that was a lot of rambling to get to that inconclusive conclusion, I know. Sorry. I thought I was going somewhere, but it turned out I was sidetracked by my 'giant mansion full of magical information rooms' metaphor.
Also, the memory of those square orange catalogue letters on those black screens in the library in college. It will haunt me now.
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