Global Evolution

Concomitant to ongoing research and observation in the United States, academic librarians in other countries have become increasingly concerned about the rise of international student use in their libraries and the best way to help these students understand and utilize broader concepts of academic research and information gathering and evaluation. Current literature brings up new questions about what international students expect from their American academic library and what kind of library skills they have (research or otherwise). At last count, there are 193 countries and 61 colonies in the world, all with their own languages, cultural traditions, and racial and ethnic groups. Therefore, the answers to these questions have the potential to be numerous, and can only serve as helpful guidelines at best. This chronological, annotated bibliography shows the evolution of the issues concerning undergraduate and graduate international students in American academic libraries and contains many possible guidelines and ideas for meeting the basic and advanced information needs of an increasingly diverse patron group. From library orientation and information literacy to and programming and outreach, the gathered information covers over forty years of articles, dissertations, theses, book chapters, books, other bibliographies, and even multimedia.