The banging your head against a brick wall method of research

Despite all my well-intentioned lessons, my attempts at humor, and my witty repartee, I still see students do their research by what I've come to call The Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall Method. This morning, after Ms. Morris's strong suggestion that students should mine student-friendly Science News for information on their "cutting edge" topics, several made a beeline for the Princeton files and started plowing through each issue. One. By. One. Fifty-two issues of these things come out per year.



This behavior, of course, turns me into the Librarian Shrew (or at least the Librarian Avenger), in which I must stop everyone in their tracks and (again) give the lecture on using the wonderful online database that allows you to limit your search to the magazine of interest. The offenders reverse course. For now.

P.S. Thanks to Michelle for the loan of her hands so I could illustrate this entry appropriately.