If you have a question, Bryant’s Allison Papini and her staff want to answer it. Working in the Douglas and Judith Krupp Library as the assistant director and manager of research and instruction services, Papini has a decade of experience assisting students with their research needs while also responding to general questions about campus.
“We answer every question from ‘What time does Dunkin’ open?’ all the way up to ‘I need economic data on women's health in Ghana,’” says Papini, who’s all about connecting with members of the Bryant community.
Students first meet Papini and her staff at orientation and then again in their first-year writing workshop, where newly minted undergrads are taught basic research principles and information literacy concepts. She finds that during workshop visits, most students are interested in discussing source evaluation.
“Research is all about context,” Papini says, adding that students should know who their audience is. “You could find the world's greatest article, but it just doesn't suit your topic; you want to make sure that what you're using actually applies to what you're trying to accomplish.”
The library helps students develop a growth mindset by giving them the tools they need to locate resources for assignments. Together, students and librarians explore article topics, develop search strategies for using online databases, and gather a list of sources and learn to cite them.
The staff also partners with the Academic Center for Excellence and the Writing Center if students are struggling with an assignment’s written portion. Ultimately, Papini says, the staff wants to ensure that students leave the library feeling capable and confident of getting the answers they need.
“It can’t hurt to talk about your topic and get a deeper understanding of it just by having a quick conversation with us. We’re friendly, helpful, and we want to help students succeed,” Papini says.
Papini recognizes that Google may not have all the sources students need for their assignments, which is why Bryant’s specialized databases — such as Wharton Data Research Services, Calcbench, UpToDate, and ClinicalKey — are readily available for student researchers. Additionally, the library has 10 Bloomberg terminals so anyone in the campus community can complete a Bloomberg Market Concepts certification, which teaches individuals how to use the Bloomberg software.
“That’s not something you find at every school,” Papini says.
The library also runs the Personal Librarian Program for honors students who are completing their senior capstone; each undergrad is assigned a personal librarian to assist them throughout the research process.
“That way, students don’t have to keep re-explaining these high-level research projects to different people. They now have someone who sees their project from the germination period all the way up to the final product,” Papini says.
Always open to new ideas, Papini says the staff is currently looking at artificial intelligence-based resources. In the library world, this form of technology can be helpful in analyzing large amounts of data, finding keywords for searching, and summarizing information for researchers. Papini says one major AI development in libraries has been the chat services where chatbots answer questions that require less expertise like “I need to find x book?” or “what are the library hours this weekend?” This feature gives librarians time to focus on answering more complex questions.
“One of the best things about libraries is that we help people ride the waves of new technology. We’ve been through the introduction of computers, the internet, e-books, Wikipedia, you name it,” Papini says. “Our superpower is understanding how information is created and organized, and our passion for helping others do the same.”
