Mr Hossain Salahuddin1, Ms Wei Cai1, Mrs Meijun Huang1, Mrs Jing Li1
1University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
This is a summary of services the Library at the University of Technology (UTS) offers to international students – who account for approximately 31% of the total student population. These students are often transitioning from one cultural and educational context into another, many of them are unfamiliar with the new environment and may require support to reach their full potential. The UTS Library offers customised support services for international students that range from language development to critical information literacy training as well as individual support. There is a team of bilingual librarians who offer library orientation programs and information literacy workshops in English, as well as in languages other than English.
English language proficiency remains a challenge for many international students studying at universities. The UTS Library’s international student support team has been working closely with other academic support units within the institution to address this challenge. The team has developed web pages with useful information and resources that international students can use to improve their English and academic language skills. In addition, a special workshop has been designed to guide international students through these resources.
The UTS Library appreciates the linguistic and cultural diversity of our international students and, where feasible, tries to tailor programs for a specific sub-group. For example, the university has a high percentage of students with Chinese-speaking background. To support this large group of international students, the Library has created a Chinese web page, run a series of Chinese workshops during each semester and worked on Chinese subtitles for key video tutorials. The Library will continue to work closely with faculties and other administrative units to identify the needs of international students and look for opportunities to support them.
Biography:
Hossain is an Information Services Librarian, currently working at University of Technology Sydney. He supports UTS Business School and Faculty of Law. In addition, he is a member of the International Team. He believes in the ethos of information literacy and lifelong learning.
Meijun Huang is an information services librarian in the UTS library, supporting the Faculty of Engineering and IT. She is also a member of the International Team, and the team leader of the Metrics Team. Before joining the UTS, Meijun Huang had been a research librarian in the Tsinghua University Library for ten years.