The high school research paper is a task which consumes instructional time, requires considerable student effort, and places a high demand on school library resources. Little research has been conducted on how students accomplish this task. Academic task research indicates that in classrooms, tasks are defined by students in terms of (a) the nature of the products the teacher will accept and (b) the operations allowed and the resources available. Here the product is the research paper; the resources available include those found in the school library. The purpose of this study was to determine what strategies students use to perform the library-related task.