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Students, Libraries, and Information Literacy

The following excerpts provide insight into student attitudes about libraries as well as their ability to use them effectively. Information such as this shows us how important it is to successfully integrate information literacy into curriculum.

In her landmark two-year qualitative study that involved 6000 students, Constance A. Mellon found that 75 to 85 percent of undergraduate students described their initial library research experiences in terms of anxiety. This anxiety either kept them from beginning their research or reduced their motivation to stay in the library long enough to become competent in the search process. Additionally, students reported that their own library skills were inadequate relative to others and that this should be kept hidden. They felt that their ineptness would be revealed by asking questions of other students or of their teachers.

  • Constance A. Mellon, "Library Anxiety: A Grounded Theory and Its Development." College & Research Libraries 47 (March 1986): 60-65.

"Students who use computer indexes and on-line facilities tended to have the highest levels of library anxiety and suggests that, unless effective interventions are implemented, anxiety might continue to worsen as libraries become more automated."

  • Qun G. Jiao & Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, "Antecedents of Library Anxiety." Library Quarterly 67, 4 (October 1997): 372-390.

"Many students have difficulty interpreting bibliographic records in Online Public Access Catalogs (such as GLOCAT) and in periodical indexes." "Only one-third of the students in the survey understood that the Boolean operator 'and' narrows a search."

  • Lilith R. Kunkel, Susan M. Waver, and Kim N. Cook. "What Do They Know?: An Assessment of Undergraduate Library Skills." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 22, 6 (November 1996): 430-434.

"What has really changed with the advent of the Web is that students no longer get most of their information for class assignments from reputable print sources in the library."

  • Kari Boyd McBride & Ruth Dickstein, "The Web Demands Critical Reading by Students." Chronicle of Higher Education (March 20, 1998): B6.

Students "imagine that the Internet is the only source worthy of searching" and many believe "that sources have value by virtue of having an electronic link."

  • Bertram C. Bruce & Kevin M. Leander, "Searching for Digital Libraries in Education: Why Computers Cannot Tell the Story." Library Trends 45 (Spring 1997): 746-770.

"The biggest challenge for me is to get the students to evaluate the source of the information. Critical thinking skills must be used!"

  • Faculty comments in: Susan Davis Herring, "Faculty Acceptance of the World Wide Web for Student Research." College & Research Libraries 62, 3 (May 2001): 251-58.

"Students used the Web for research basically unchecked, largely because they had prior experience in using the Internet for electronic mail or chat rooms and felt that they did not need assistance with research."

  • Deborah J. Grimes & Carl H. Boening, "Worries with the Web: A Look at Student Use of Web Resources." College and Research Libraries 62, 1 (January 2001): 11-23.

"The most fundamental conclusion … is that students think they know more about assessing information and conducting library research than they are able to demonstrate when put to the test."

  • Patricia Davitt Maughan, "Assessing Information Literacy among Undergraduates: A Discussion of the Literature and the University -Berkley Assessment Experience." College & Research Libraries 62, 1 (January 2001): 71-85.