Monty L. McAdoo. The Student’s Survival Guide to Research. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, an imprint of the American Library Association, 2015. 232p. Paper, $58.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-1276-8).


558 College & Research Libraries July 2016

ent factors, both internal and external, that affect or influence information behavior. 
This section is unique since rarely do you see a discussion of information behavior 
presented with such a wide variety of influencing factors. 

Part 3 is structured as a springboard for the book. If parts 1 and 2 help give the reader 
a better understanding of the discipline and concepts of information behavior, then part 
3 serves to help the reader with the inevitable “where do I go from here” question. Part 
3 addresses such issues like the different types of methodologies one could employ in 
studying information behavior. It also discusses the design of an information system 
based on an observed or studied type of information behavior. 

Overall, the chapters in this book could serve as a good introduction to the different 
aspects of information behavior. However, it may be a bit overwhelming to a reader. 
The challenge in reading this book as a complete text on information behavior is the 
lack of continuity between the different chapters. Each individual chapter could serve 
as a good primer of that specific topic, yet the book as a whole lacks continuity. There 
is no interconnected theme from chapter to chapter. Each singular chapter introduces a 
significant amount of scholarship and is well synthesized if taken alone. For example, 
there is a chapter on research methodologies. Although the chapter serves as a good 
introduction to research methodologies, the topic is so complex that the breadth of the 
different research methodologies takes away from the continuity of the whole book. 

Examining the decades of research on information behavior in a single text is a 
challenging task. The author does a good job of building a structure to support such a 
heavy weight, but the structure of each chapter also serves to make them self-contained 
learning pods. What is most interesting about this book is that the singular chapters are 
some of the most in-depth synthesized discussions on information behavior. The refer-
ence and the examples are a good primer for any students interested in the discipline. 
The real problem, though, is there is no real thread woven through that illustrates a 
unique approach to understanding information behavior or a new methodology one 
could use to determine which of the multitude of theories and factors one could use 
for his or her own research. The book does as is described; it serves as a “primer on 
information behavior,” which should be read as a series of parts rather than the sum 
of its whole.—Ryan Litsey, Texas Tech University

Monty L. McAdoo. The Student’s Survival Guide to Research. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 
an imprint of the American Library Association, 2015. 232p. Paper, $58.00 (ISBN 
978-0-8389-1276-8). 

The Student’s Survival Guide to Research is a book aimed at beginning researchers, and 
likely its most immediate audience is students enrolled in a freshman-level composi-
tion or college writing course. The book’s “Introduction” states that the content won’t 
exhaustively cover research and writing, but instead it aims to prepare beginning re-
searchers to understand the types of skills they’ll need and challenges they’ll encounter 
early in their research. Librarians who teach credit-bearing information literacy classes 
or offer library instruction to first-year writing students may find the book helpful in 
the way that it situates library-specific aspects of the research process within a broader 
array of skill and tasks.

In its opening two chapters, The Student’s Survival Guide to Research identifies some 
key terminology and offers tips for how to prepare for a research project. McAdoo 
begins by clarifying that this book will not focus on research that involve testing hy-
potheses with experimental methods, yet rather the types of projects that ask students 
to use outside sources of information to write a term paper. The table of contents makes 
it clear that the book’s focus is on library skills, writing, reading comprehension, and 
time management. In this way, The Student’s Survival Guide is similar to research manu-

doi:10.5860/crl.77.4-558



Book Reviews 559

als used in composition classes like the Writer’s Research Manual portion of the Bedford 
Guide for College Writers. McAdoo’s background as a research and instruction librarian 
will be apparent to librarians consulting this book, especially when he discusses is-
sues like access to information and interlibrary loan, topics which may get little or no 
attention from similar handbooks. 

The bulk of The Student’s Survival Guide to Research, chapters 4 through 12, dissect 
the research process. The content moves in a logical order from “Understanding Your 
Assignment” (chapter 4) through “Accessing and Acquiring Information Sources” 
(chapter 7) to “Writing Your Paper” (chapter 12). Many of these chapters have com-
mon features, including definitions of important terminology, tables for graphically 
summarizing content, tips for incorporating these concepts into one’s own research, 
and reflection questions to conclude each chapter. These layout features help the reader 
make sense of the content, though they are employed unevenly. For example, one of 
the longest chapters in the book is chapter 8, “Conducting Effective Search Strategies.” 
This chapter would benefit from a more streamlined method of introducing search 
strategies and from presenting more of the information in a table format to make the 
content digestible. By contrast, chapter 5, “Selecting a Research Topic,” puts many of 
these layout features to good use; as a result, the content is both easy to follow and 
memorable.

Handbooks like The Student’s Survival Guide to Research need to include definitions 
of key research vocabulary, although defining things like “primary” and “second-
ary” sources inevitably means choosing a definition that may be at odds with some 
disciplines’ understanding of those terms. Likewise, delineating types of periodicals 
(“popular,” “scholarly”) can be tricky. McAdoo deftly addresses the mutability of 
research jargon by providing clear definitions while also noting that the parameters 
set by a specific instructor should guide a student’s resource selection for a given as-
signment. All of the terms defined in bold in the text of the book are also included 
in a glossary, which has cross-references for both preferred terms and related terms. 
For example, the glossary term “academic publications” is cross-referenced with the 
note, “See scholarly publications.” The glossary is a useful tool, although one that may 
be limited by the extent to which the student researchers’ assignment aligns with a 
particular definition. 

Another topic that seems inevitable in a beginner’s research handbook is attribut-
ing sources and using information ethically and responsibly. Helpfully, The Student’s 
Survival Guide to Research focuses more on the intent behind citing sources in academic 
work and less on exhaustively providing examples of in-text citations and reference list 
formulations. The emphasis on why to cite as opposed to how—along with a detailed 
section on writing a paraphrase or summary—will serve students well. Incorporating 
information and attribution are concepts that span the expertise of a writing instructor 
and a librarian, and their presentation here could prove insightful to librarians who 
tend to field questions more on rote citation mechanics. 

Because McAdoo presents the topic of “research” as being broader than the content 
presented in a one-shot library session, many librarians who provide information lit-
eracy instruction could benefit from the chapters that cover the parts of the research 
process that typically happen outside the library. Strategies presented in this book about 
how to approach reading scholarly literature for comprehension, for example, may 
help librarians situate their role in the research process or provide ideas about how 
to offer expanded instructional services. Even the chapter on “Writing Your Paper” 
could be of use to librarians, since its focus is not on the mechanics of writing. Instead, 
as McAdoo writes, “The purpose of this chapter is to make you aware of some of the 
common challenges” encountered in the writing process. While librarians are not the 



560 College & Research Libraries July 2016

intended audience for the book, The Student’s Survival Guide to Research has the potential 
to supplement the librarian’s knowledge about the broader expectations facing new 
college students or first-time researchers.

Monty L. McAdoo’s beginner’s research manual is a step-by-step journey from re-
ceiving a first writing assignment to composing a paper. While it follows the general 
outline of other research handbooks, the book reflects McAdoo’s background as a 
research and instruction librarian in its nuanced consideration of library-related issues. 
The Student’s Survival Guide to Research offers tips for students, definitions, and helpful 
models for thinking about research as a process, while its ability to convey these ideas 
in a concise and memorable way varies from chapter to chapter. The book’s blending of 
library skills and broader lessons about academic preparedness works well and reads 
easily.—Michael R. Mitchell, Bethel University

Theresa Willingham and Jeroen De Boer. Makerspaces in Libraries. Library Technology 
Essentials; 4. Ellyssa Kroski, ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. 142p. Paper, 
$45.00 (ISBN 978-1-4422-5300-1). OCLC: 906121721.

Makerspaces in Libraries is not the first, nor will it be the last, book on this complex 
subject; however, it is a good book: substantial, thorough though not exhaustive, ap-
proachable, and concise. This blend of professional essay, descriptive narrative, and 
how-to is recommended reading for anyone whose ideas and opinions on this subject 
are still forming and goes some way toward filling a gap in the published literature 
for those whose institutions are preparing to establish a makerspace in their building 
or on their campus.

The authors begin the book with a chapter giving a brief history of makerspaces, 
foregrounding the natural affinity between the makerspace concept and the library 
mission. The next two chapters cover many of the most pressing practical consider-
ations. Subsequent chapters focus on case studies, project ideas, tips and tricks, and 
future trends. The book is structured to be read beginning to end in a linear manner, 
although once read it is usable as a reference and planning tool. While the index cover-
age is limited, after one read-through of the text it is a small matter to locate each major 
topic again. Chapter endnotes provide the reader with additional information as well 
as source citations, and there is a concentrated list of “further reading” following the 
book’s conclusion. Those sources include books and articles, as well as websites pro-
viding more library-specific background on makerspace, in addition to sites relevant 
to the entrepreneurial “maker.”

Chapter 2, “Getting Started with Makerspaces,” is one of the book’s stronger chap-
ters. It provides, among other things, a solid analysis of considerations necessary to 
the process of planning a makerspace. What makes it especially useful, and rare in 
the makerspace literature to date, is that it addresses directly the minimum physical 
space required for a functional makerspace and supplies sample groundplans from 
two real-world makerspace builds. While some of the information given is specific to 
fixed-space planning, pop-up or mobile programming will also require estimation of 
space needed, so it is useful for that as well. This section of the chapter also accounts 
for the intersecting requirements of comfort and safety, spelling out the square footage 
needed for engagement in table-based maker activities, safe operation of equipment, 
and emergency aisles. With very little effort, significant details from this chapter 
could be abstracted into a rubric or checklist to inform productive consultation with 
members of the library’s community as well as for organization-internal implementa-
tion planning.

The library examples and case studies presented in chapter 4 are intended “to glean 
best practices and recommendations from librarians experienced in makerspace […] 

doi:10.5860/crl.77.4.560