Academic libraries, like other university departments, are being asked to demonstrate their value to the institution. This study discusses the impact library usage has on the retention and academic success of first-time, first-year undergraduate students at a large, public research university. Usage statistics were gathered at the University of Minnesota during the Fall 2011 semester for thirteen library access points. Analysis of the data suggests first-time, first-year undergraduate students who use the library have a higher GPA for their first semester and higher retention from fall to spring than non-library users.

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In Fall 2011, staff at the University of Minnesota Libraries-Twin Cities undertook a project to measure how often, and in what ways, students used the Libraries' services. Partnering with the University's Office of Institutional Research, the team investigated ways to match library service usage to individual accounts while retaining patron privacy to determine who was-and was not-using the library. With complete data sets, the group was able to determine overall usage rates for undergraduate and graduate students and compare how students in different colleges used library services. This article discusses data gathering techniques, analysis, and initial findings.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of first-year undergraduates' (n = 5,368) use of academic library resources in their first year on their degree completion or continued enrollment after four years of study. Propensity score matching techniques were used to construct treatment (library users) and control (library nonusers) groups with similar background characteristics and college experiences. The results suggest that using the library at least one time in the first year of enrollment significantly increased the odds that students would graduate in four years or remain enrolled after four years as opposed to withdrawing from the university. First-year students who used electronic resources and books also had significantly improved odds of graduation over withdrawing, while students who used electronic books and took a library instruction course had significantly improved odds of remaining enrolled over withdrawing.Over the last decade, calls to explore the value of academic libraries in supporting college students' success have yielded several promising research studies that have investigated relationships between students' use of academic libraries, retention, 1 and academic achievement. 2 Given the prioritization of retention and graduation rates among colleges and universities, 3 in addition to mounting public pressures for institutions to encourage students' success, such library impact research studies continue to have advancing relevance in the field of academic libraries research and assessment and in higher education as a whole.While researchers exploring the associations between academic library use and students' success have used increasingly more robust data sets with large sample sizes, improved their research methodologies and data analyses, and developed progressively nuanced research designs, there remains a series of unanswered questions yet to be addressed. For instance, while graduation rates are important indicators of the success of higher education institutions, there are, at present, few research studies that have explored whether academic libraries and their various components may contribute to students' long-term success over the course of their enrollment. Stone and

The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether there are relationships between first-year college students' use of academic libraries and four academic outcomes: academic engagement, engagement in scholarly activities, academic skills development, and grade point average. The results of regression analyses suggest students' use of books (collection loans, e-books, and interlibrary loans) and web-based services (database, journal, and library website logins) had the most positive and significant relationships with academic outcomes. Students' use of reference services was positively associated with their academic engagement and academic skills, while enrollment in library courses was positively associated with grade point averages.esearchers are beginning to heed calls to more formally investigate the abeyant benefits of college and university academic libraries for one of their largest groups of constituents-undergraduate college students. For instance, scholars have provided evidence for the positive associations between college students' use of academic libraries, fall semester grade point averages, and retention from fall to spring semester.1 These benefits also extend to students' retention from their first year to their second year of enrollment and to their final first-year cumulative grade point average.2 Similar studies have revealed positive associations between the number of books students borrowed and their grade point average, 3 as well as significant relationships between the number of resources held at libraries and students' development of critical thinking skills.4 In an earlier study, Wells also found statistically significant and positive correlations between students' use of academic library resources (such as borrowed books, journal articles, items in the reserve collection) and their academic achievement.5 The effects of these research studies have helped move librarians from simply asserting that their libraries positively promote students' learning to truly understanding the ways in which students' use of academic libraries is associated with their learning and academic success. Despite the growing body of literature in this area, there is still too little evidence regarding the multifaceted ways in which students' use of academic libraries is as-