Fairfield University.(2015) Graduate Students at Dolan School of Business. Retrieved from https://www.fairfield.edu/enewsletters/dsbnewsletter/featurestories/newnewsingraduateeducationatthedolanschool.html

"Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations. Research in scholarly and professional fields is a discursive practice in which ideas are formulated, debated, and weighed against one another over extended periods of time."

"Instead of seeking discrete answers to complex problems, experts understand that a given issue may be characterized by several competing perspectives as part of an ongoing conversation in which information users and creators come together and negotiate meaning."  Depending on your discipline, this scholarly conversation usually occurs primarily in journals, although books also play a role.

As graduate students, you are invited to enter into this scholarly conversation. Your research provides an entry point for you to engage with a community of scholars in your field. You do this by reading the works of others, building upon their ideas,  attributing credit when necessary, and perhaps even publishing your own work.

This above quotes are taken with permission of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Citation: Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework#conversation