In this article, the authors discuss how the University of Rochester's two-year ethnographic study reveals what students do on campus and how the library fits in. Under Nancy Fried Foster's guidance, teams of librarians and staff conducted a two-year investigation. The goal: to improve the libraries' reference services, facilities, and web pages to better meet the needs of their undergraduates. Ethnographic methods provide new approaches for listening, asking questions, and observing. After initial planning and forming a project team, they sought permission to conduct the research from their university's Research Subjects Review Board, which requires high sensitivity to confidentiality and informed student consent. Team members practiced ethnographic techniques by doing observation exercises and videotaping interviews conducted by Foster. Later, they used additional methods to help answer other questions that arose during their research.