Gemstone

You are a vital resource for your team and as such, a well planned and organized meeting is key to best help your students. It is the students' responsibility to contact you to set up meetings, bring questions, and ask for help, but as educators, we need to use our best teaching skills to help them through this process. Often, teams may have difficulty identifying questions or gaps in their knowledge. It is important to understand that while these are incredibly intelligent students, they are still young students in need of direction. When holding meetings with students be sure to:

• Ask active questions which require meaningful responses 
• Be nimble and ask questions in different ways to ensure understanding
• Help them think outside their direct experience and guide them into helpful library-related research avenues 
• Be willing to push the students a little to help them through tough research hurdles 

Always remember, you have years of experience and crucial research skills to teach. Don't let lack of subject area knowledge intimidate you, there is always something you can help with for these teams. Libraries and research are difficult and idiosyncratic beasts that take time to master, give the students the key to their success by helping them through this difficult process.