Student Bibliographies Improve When Professors Provide Enforceable Guidelines for Citations

This paper uses bibliometric analysis to test the efficacy of in-class library instruction in relation to the quality of student term paper bibliographies and grades. It finds that: instruction alone has limited effect; instruction combined with academic penalties tied to the use of a minimum of scholarly sources has positive and significant effects; electronic citations are less scholarly, but not necessarily less valid than print citations; and papers with longer bibliographies tend to receive higher grades irrespective of the kinds of citations. The paper concludes that since academic penalties are important to the success of in-class librarian instruction, librarians should work closely with professors to design class assignments; the provision of minimal guidelines is preferable to banning Internet citations.