As one of the fastest growing social networking sites, Facebook presents librarians with a prime opportunity to engage academic library patrons. A survey of 136 users at Western Michigan University (WMU) measured the effectiveness of Facebook as a marketing, reference, and instruction tool. It also measured user comfort and satisfaction with a library's presence on Facebook. The majority of respondents found Facebook to be a useful and engaging medium to learn about library resources and services. The results of this study indicate that an effective library Facebook page must maintain a balance between providing pertinent and useful information and preserving patron privacy. In a second study also included in this article, data from a survey of 14 peer institutions of Western Michigan University positions WMU's local survey within the context of their peer's use of Facebook. The survey of peer institutions concludes that most libraries use Facebook for marketing and outreach purposes.

In the thesis literature review, an engineering graduate student is expected to place original research in the context of previous work by other researchers. However, for some students, particularly those for whom English is a second language, the literature review may be a mixture of original writing and verbatim source text appropriated without quotations. Such problematic use of source material leaves students vulnerable to an accusation of plagiarism, which carries severe consequences. Is such textual appropriation common in engineering master's writing? Furthermore, what, if anything, can be concluded when two texts have been found to have textual material in common? Do existing definitions of plagiarism provide a sufficient framework for determining if an instance of copying is transgressive or not? In a preliminary attempt to answer these questions, text strings from a random sample of 100 engineering master's theses from the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database were searched for appropriated verbatim source text using the Google search engine. The results suggest that textual borrowing may indeed be a common feature of the master's engineering literature review, raising questions about the ability of graduate students to synthesize the literature. The study also illustrates the difficulties of making a determination of plagiarism based on simple textual similarity. A context-specific approach is recommended when dealing with any instance of apparent copying.

Topic development and focus are relatively neglected areas of the student research process. This study examined how students in a freshman engineering writing class developed initial research paper topics into focused thesis statements. A mixed methods approach was used, incorporating online surveys, qualitative interviews, and a rubric to track topic development and assess thesis statement focus. The survey results and student comments indicated that participants were more competent at the mechanics of finding sources and writing than at developing appropriately scoped thesis statements. Closer collaboration between writing instructors and librarians is urged to more effectively support and scaffold topic development.

Currently he is an engineering and applied sciences librarian at Western Michigan University Libraries. His work has appeared in Science and Engineering Ethics, College & Undergraduate Libraries, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, and Reference & User Services Quarterly. His research interests include plagiarism and research skills training in engineering graduates and undergraduates.

T hose who assist undergraduates at the reference desk know how tempting it can be, especially under time pressure, to find sources or perform online database searches for them. At the same time, reference librarians are likely to spend a significant number of classroom hours each week teaching undergraduates how to find, evaluate, and use information.1 The question arises: is it logical or effective for librarians to instruct students in information literacy if they then undermine that instruction at the reference desk?The independent research skills that are an integral part of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education have a great deal in common with the educational concept of self-regulated learning.2 A self-regulating researcher is able to formulate a research plan as well as monitor and control progress toward the completion of the research.3 Furthermore, this self-regulation is an essential aspect of information literacy that is short-changed when librarians, with the best of intentions, insist on finding answers for students.This article focuses on the one-on-one nature of reference interactions, and how they relate to tutoring interactions. It argues that, in approaching reference interactions as tutorial interactions, librarians can scaffold the self-regulation of student researchers and thereby more effectively support their emerging information literacy. REFERENCE SERVICE: TO TEACh OR NOT TO TEAChTwo contradictory views regarding the function of library reference services commonly surface in the library literature. This dichotomy was essentially expressed more than forty years ago in the title of Anita R. Schiller' s 1965 article "Reference Service: Instruction or Information."4 Schiller argues that librarians should focus on "providing direct answers to questions" and that instructing users at the reference desk confuses them with regard to what service they may expect. 5Schiller also appears to blame librarians' self-defined instructional role for the inability of patrons to voice their information needs.6 (This argument is effectively refuted by several subsequent articles and studies that show that the inability to articulate an information need is common at the beginning of the information search process.