Beyond Books: The Extended Academic Benefits of Library Use for First-Year College Students

Abstract

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-

The Library’s Impact on University Students’ Academic Success and Learning

“…Most of the students' library resource use was shown to be positively associated with their GPAs. This finding is consistent with previous studies indicating that library resource use (e.g., databases) was positively correlated with students' GPAs (Brown & Malenfant, 2018a;Soria et al, 2013Soria et al, , 2017. It is important to note that some resources (textbooks on reserve, digital images, and streaming media) are negatively associated with students' GPAs.…”

“…In spite of the findings of the weak relationships in the current study, it is important to note that the findings of the correlations (e.g., resource use) were supported by the literature discussed above (Allison, 2015;Soria et al, 2013Soria et al, , 2017. Weak correlations between undergraduate students' library use (e.g., checkouts and databases) and GPAs also were found in Allison's study.…”

“…This finding is also supported by the results of the quantitative data indicating that students' library resource use was positively associated with their GPAs. Other students have also reported similar findings related to the positive impact that library resources and services (e.g., database use, interlibrary loan, library instruction, research consultations) may have to promote students' learning (Allison, 2015;Brown & Malenfant, 2018a, 2018bGaha, Hinnefeld & Pellegrino, 2018;Soria et al, 2013Soria et al, , 2017.…”

“…Other institutions also used library and institutional data to explore the impact of libraries not only on students' GPAs but also their learning. At the University of Minnesota, Soria, Fransen and Nackerud (2017) used the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey, a campus-wide survey measuring the students' educational experience and academic engagement. The survey data was used in addition to library data (e.g., students' library use in collections, web-services, and online chat with librarian) and institutional data (students' demographic information and GPA) to examine whether first-year college students' use of academic libraries was associated with students' academic outcomes (e.g., students' academic engagement, academic skills and GPA).…”

“…Soria and colleagues found that students who consulted or met with reference librarians had higher academic engagement and academic skills. In addition, they found that students who used web-based services (e.g., databases or library websites) and engaged in library instruction (e.g., workshops or course integrated instruction) had a higher GPA in comparison to students who did not use these services (Soria et al, 2017).…”