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How to be a Peer Research Consultant: A Guide for Librarians and Students
Every student brings their own individual set of educational and personal experiences to a research project, and peer research consultants are uniquely able to reveal this “hidden curriculum” to the researchers they assist.
In seven highly readable chapters, How to Be a Peer Research Consultant provides focused support for anyone preparing undergraduate students to serve as peer research consultants, whether you refer to these student workers as research tutors, reference assistants, or research helpers. Inside you’ll find valuable training material to help student researchers develop metacognitive, transferable research skills and habits, as well as foundational topics like what research looks like in different disciplines, professionalism and privacy, ethics, the research process, inclusive research consultations, and common research assignments. It concludes with an appendix containing 30 activities, discussion questions, and written reflection prompts to complement the content covered in each chapter, designed to be easily printed or copied from the book.
How to Be a Peer Research Consultant can be read in its entirety to gather ideas and activities, or it can be distributed to each student as a training manual. It pays particular attention to the peer research consultant-student relationship and offers guidance on flexible approaches for supporting a wide range of research needs. The book is intended to be useful in a variety of higher education settings and is designed to be applicable to each institution’s unique library resources and holdings. Through mentoring and coaching, undergraduate students can feel confident in their ability to help their peers with research and may be inspired to continue this work as professional librarians in the future.
In seven highly readable chapters, How to Be a Peer Research Consultant provides focused support for anyone preparing undergraduate students to serve as peer research consultants, whether you refer to these student workers as research tutors, reference assistants, or research helpers. Inside you’ll find valuable training material to help student researchers develop metacognitive, transferable research skills and habits, as well as foundational topics like what research looks like in different disciplines, professionalism and privacy, ethics, the research process, inclusive research consultations, and common research assignments. It concludes with an appendix containing 30 activities, discussion questions, and written reflection prompts to complement the content covered in each chapter, designed to be easily printed or copied from the book.
How to Be a Peer Research Consultant can be read in its entirety to gather ideas and activities, or it can be distributed to each student as a training manual. It pays particular attention to the peer research consultant-student relationship and offers guidance on flexible approaches for supporting a wide range of research needs. The book is intended to be useful in a variety of higher education settings and is designed to be applicable to each institution’s unique library resources and holdings. Through mentoring and coaching, undergraduate students can feel confident in their ability to help their peers with research and may be inspired to continue this work as professional librarians in the future.
108 pages, Paperback
Published February 8, 2022
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June 8, 2023
I read this to contemplate better ways of training our reference assistants, but quite honestly -- I think this slim (under 100 pages!) book has more value than the entire textbook for the reference & instruction class I took back in grad school. I think maybe the only thing I don't recall it discussing was balancing out competing demands when it gets busy (e.g. you're on a chat, but someone walks up to you and then the phone rings).
It provides numerous sample phrases/examples of what to say at different parts of the reference interview, and it balances practical in-the-moment tips with a light peek into the broader framework we operate in (e.g. cultural humility, growth mindset) to contextualize things, which I think is important for paraprofessional roles in the library. There are training/self-reflection activities provided, as well.
Very useful resource!
It provides numerous sample phrases/examples of what to say at different parts of the reference interview, and it balances practical in-the-moment tips with a light peek into the broader framework we operate in (e.g. cultural humility, growth mindset) to contextualize things, which I think is important for paraprofessional roles in the library. There are training/self-reflection activities provided, as well.
Very useful resource!
Displaying 1 of 1 review