The Information-Seeking Habits of Graduate Student Researchers in the Humanities

User studies continue to be an important area of library research, as studying the information-seeking behavior of specific user groups has contributed to the development of a variety of library services. On university campuses, research into the information-seeking patterns of humanities undergraduates has influenced the design of information literacy programs and reference services. As well, an extensive body of literature on the information-seeking habits of humanities faculty researchers has shaped academic library services. Humanities graduate students, however, have received little attention from library researchers, and as a consequence their information-seeking habits are often assumed to resemble those of either faculty members or undergraduates. This apparent gap in the library literature suggests that exploratory research is in order to determine to what extent humanities graduate students might constitute a unique user group. Moreover, a better understanding of their research habits might contribute to the designing of appropriate information literacy and bibliographic instruction programs, which if B.T. Fidzani’s survey findings are representative, graduate students are desperately in need of.