Undergraduate Student Success and Library Use: A Multimethod Approach

Abstract

How libraries affect student success has become an increasingly important question to many academic librarians. To investigate this phenomenon, we explored student success via two approaches in this multimethod study: 1) through individual student interviews to capture the student voice; and 2) through hierarchical linear and logistic modeling of institutional data to capture the institutional perspective. Through the qualitative component, students articulated how they define success and how the library contributes to their success, especially in terms of providing a sense of belonging and facilitating the work of a community of scholars. The quantitative data provides additional context by demonstrating a small positive correlation between use of library resources and student persistence, further highlighting the community building impact of the libraries.

Exploring University Students' Library Engagement: Reading Habits, Preferences, and Gender Dynamics

“…Insights into students' reading preferences and the types of books they peruse within the library highlight frequent interactions with personal notebooks, indicating a prevalent practice of referencing personal notebooks in the library. This supports research underscoring the significance of personal notes and study materials in students' learning processes (Friedman, 2014;Mayer et al, 2020;Scoulas & De Groote, 2022), suggesting that students consider their notes a crucial study and reference resource. The relatively high engagement with "Library textbooks" demonstrates students' frequent interaction with available textbooks in the library, underscoring libraries' traditional role in providing textbook access and supporting academic endeavors (Adetayo, 2022).…”

The Impact of the Academic Library on Students' Success, in Their Own Words

“…These themes resemble the four themes identified by Jennifer Mayer, Rachel Dineen, Angela Rockwell, and Jayne Blodgett as related to the perceived role of the library in academic success: space, people, place, and resources and services. 18 Some students in the current study regarded the library space as a positive contributor to their learning, providing quiet areas where they could concentrate and learn independently as well as collaborative spaces where they could study with peers or complete group assignments. Many students utilized both types of spaces, depending on their needs.…”

“…A 2020 study interviewing students about the impact of the library also explored their definitions of success. 15 For the study subjects, success was making "their best possible effort," gaining knowledge, or learning "something new-regardless of their assigned grade. "…”

Fostering UDL-informed library instruction practices developed from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The correlation between library instruction and student success has been well documented in the literature (Bowles-Terry, 2012;Mayer et al, 2020;Shao and Purpur, 2016), and library instruction, specifically IL instruction, has been viewed as a key role of academic libraries (Cook, 2022). One-shots have shown to be a valuable tool in increasing students' library use and learning (Spievak and Hayes-Bohanan, 2013).…”