The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to three articles from Reference Services Review on the theme of library outreach to international students. It aims to give a summary overview of the current research on international students and library outreach and to introduce and contextualize the three articles.
This paper frames the three articles and places them in the context of the exhaustive literature on the topic.
International students are not all alike. Grouping all of these students together under the umbrella term of “international student” contributes little, if at all, to the understanding of their real needs and problems.
This paper suggests that there are still areas for further exploration on the topic of international students and library outreach.
This paper argues with the oversimplified and generalized approach to international students, and suggests that it is not the most useful way to assist individual students.
