Supporting Today’s Students in the Library: Strategies for Retaining and Graduating International, Transfer, First-Generation, and Re-Entry Students. Ngoc-Yen Tran and Silke Higgins, eds. Chicago, IL: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2020. 275p. Paper.

Abstract

This collection brings together research from the library and student affairs fields to present a thorough look at methods for increasing student success among populations with distinct needs and characteristics: international, transfer, first-generation, and re-entry students, with international and first-generation populations receiving the most attention. It is a welcome addition to the academic library literature. The theories of well-established student affairs scholars, such as George Kuh and Vincent Tinto, are highlighted in many chapters’ literature reviews and appear in the bibliographies of nearly all chapters. Familiarity with this literature is key in engaging outside units within the academy and building the kinds of partnerships suggested by many authors in this work. Common themes include robust partnerships with academic writing centers, collaborating with graduate programs to increase ESL students’ research and writing skills, and deliberately structuring assignments to aid student comprehension and skill development.