We’re working with a museums studies class this semester as a case study site, which is cool, but I swear every e-mail a student sends me wanting to come in a do research is the exact same.
Like at the beginning of the semester they came in and did a tour, and I showed them some of our resources and gave them a list of our research files so they would know what types of information we have available for them to look through once they pick their topic. And without fail, I have had to respond to every single one of them telling them they have to actually tell me what research files they want to look at before coming in. Every e-mail they send is like “I’m a student in this class, do you have time this week for me to come in and look at the resources you have?”
I’m not a mind-reader, I don’t know what topic they’re researching, and even if they mention what it is I’m not the one writing the paper so I don’t know what kind of information they need on it. The resources we have will be useless unless I know what they’re looking for! Also, all of our research files are in a separate building so they need to give me a list at least a day in advance so I can make sure I have time to pull the files for them!
