Targeting Grad Students: Creating a Web Guide for Thesis Writers in the Construction Industry Fields
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abstract
Many graduate students from Texas A&M Universitys departments of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Construction Sciences have a need for construction industry data. In these departments there is a sizeable body of international students who are unfamiliar with how to access construction industry information and data, especially U.S. data. This poster will highlight the creation of a Libguide that aids graduate students focusing on the construction industry in accessing the data needed to write their theses. The guide focuses on providing government, trade association, and organization data and most importantly organizes it in a manner that facilitates discovery. It was promoted to teaching faculty in these areas so they could provide their graduate students with a starting point for research, as well as introduce them to subject librarians who can assist the students in further research. The guide went live in the Spring semester of 2014 and was promoted by the Texas A&M University Libraries marketing team and multiple subject librarians. At the end of the semester the guide will be assessed by reviewing usage statistics and patron feedback. This poster will visually demonstrate the decision and methodology used to create a specific web guide for a graduate student major focus as well as use graphs and charts to show usage results and patron feedback. Providing this information will encourage other libraries to provide similar guides to support graduate students at their institutions.
