Thesis Help Is Hard.

Well, it is.

Fortunately, I knew this already, and it was not a surprise. But...as the Great Philosophical Crisis of '14 denotes, I had a hard time striking the balance between getting students to rewrite their thesis statements... and conceding that their statements were fine and our collection was where things were amiss. One of the articles I read during my exploration phase described a class of students who changed their topics completely (drastic changes -- one, if memory serves, switched from "music's physical and emotional effects" to "Mexican food") simply because of the lack of resources.

With the internet at our disposal, in everything from online encyclopedias to ordering print books, it seems ridiculous that that student couldn't just amend or refine his/her thesis -- keep it in the general area, but perhaps make the research/paper-writing process a bit easier for everyone.

This is harder than it sounds.

As a result, the vast majority of thesis help in our reference interviews has gone straight to me -- the SMA's, many of whom are concerned with their own senior projects, had a hard time refining/writing their own thesis statements, and so it is left to the English-teacher-come-librarian.