Teach research techniques Provide a written outline of steps involved in the research assignment and a list of suggested sources. If you prefer not to, you may wish to invite a librarian to meet with your students during your regular class time to teach research techniques and to discuss appropriate sources for the assignment. Use the Reserve service where appropriate or warn Reference librarians ahead of time about an assignment in a specific reference source. Avoid scavenger hunts Searching for obscure facts without any guidance is frustrating for students and teaches them nothing about doing research. It becomes an exercise for Reference librarians to perform.
Libraries are complex institutions, each one a bit different from the next.
It is expected that students will need help, and library staff are trained to provide that help. Librarians cannot be expected to determine whether a given professor permits students to get help.