“Research to Go” brings the stacks to students

Tidewater Community College’s Chesapeake Campus is piloting a pop-up reference desk program, known as “Research to Go,” this semester. Through the program, students can access a full spectrum of library reference services without trekking across campus.

The program offers twice-a-week pop-ups in the campus student center and academic building. Students can stop by for help picking research topics, finding reference materials, locating books and articles and accessing databases. Librarians also offer demonstrations on library technology, including how to use the library website, source scholarly articles and refer to online guides and databases.

Abbie Basile, library coordinator at the Chesapeake Campus, is leading the initiative and hopes the program can help meet the needs of an evolving student population at Chesapeake’s expanding campus. “With the construction of the student center and academic building at the opposite end of campus the library has seen a huge change in the foot traffic,” notes Basile. “Students still visit the library for quiet study and to use the computers, but we’ve seen a decrease in questions at the reference desk.” The library offers an online chat service, but students tend to prefer in-person guidance.

So far, those who have used the services appreciate the convenience. “Students are slowly catching on as we become more visible,” says Basile. “Using technology we can do everything we would normally do at the library reference desk – short of walking them down the aisle.”

Where to find the pop-up reference desk:

Wednesdays: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Chesapeake Campus Student Center
Thursdays: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Chesapeake Academic Building Learning Assistance Center