NCLA Con 2025

The hoopla and intentionality with which many library outreach programs are pitched to undergraduate students are not always replicated for graduate students, especially when their numbers are small. Direct outreach to grad students may only come at the end of their time at the institution through support around theses and dissertations. Inadvertently, libraries may be overlooking a population with diverse support needs that go beyond graduation checklist steps - we certainly were! Our targeted support for graduate students began 16 years ago when the library launched our institutional repository and the Graduate School began requiring students to submit electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Our scholarly communication committee advised on the technical steps for submission and hosted a workshop to introduce students to the system and answer questions. Hiring a Scholarly Communication Librarian in 2009 enabled the library to provide expert guidance to students around copyright and fair use and to faculty advisors who were skeptical of the benefits of open access for ETDs. After learning about graduate student boot camps at ACRL 2017, we expanded support for graduate students that fall semester with the creation of a graduate student boot camp hosted by the library during the University's fall break. We offered sessions on addressing writer's block, time management, copyright and open access, research databases, and citation tools. To encourage participation, we included coffee and lunch for participants. We partnered with both the writing center and learning assistance office to help lead the sessions and received funding from the library and Graduate School. Over the eight boot camps we have hosted, survey feedback has allowed us to tailor the boot camp to the needs of the students, changing the time of the event, the workshops offered, and even the menu for lunch! Most recently, in 2024, through internal restructuring, we created a new liaison librarian position, part of whose time is dedicated to outreach to and support of graduate students. This new position works with the University's team that prepares and conducts graduate student orientation and represents the library on a University collaborative team that brings together staff who support graduate students from across the campus. Additionally, this librarian offers workshops on research and citation management to graduate students both on campus and in online graduate programs. This expanded outreach aligns with the library's commitment to improving student study spaces, which included relocating the graduate student lounge to a suite with a printer, kitchenette, and snack station. Building from our support around theses and dissertations preparation and submission, we slowly crafted an outreach program for our graduate students. Given that our initial in-road for support came at graduation, we grew our program from end to beginning and now offer a matriculation-to-graduation comprehensive program that provides multifaceted assistance to a critical campus population. Join us for this session, where we will share a scaffolded and replicable model for library support of graduate students that they can customize and implement at their institution.