College and Research Libraries PATRICK BARKEY Patterns of Student Use of a College Library A tabulation was made of a sampling of book charges and their bor- rowers' class, sex, and grade point average. During a month-long peri- od almost two out of three students borrowed no books. Freshmen borrowed more books per capita than did .their elders. There was direct correlation between grade point average and the number of books charged. Slightly more books were charged per capita to women than to men. The implications of the high incidence of nonuse of libraries upon staffing are discussed. IN THE SPRING of 1962 a thirty-day study was made to determine the broad pattern of student use of the library at Eastern Illinois University. The data collected at that time were so disturbing-indicating that 63 per cent of the student body bor- rowed NO books during the period-that another similar survey was undertaken in the fall quarter of 1963. Both studies are reflected in this report, although to conserve space only the detailed break- down from the earlier quarter on such matters as academic class, achievement, and sex is reported here. The method used for both studies was as follows: all call slips for books from the closed stack were saved for a period of thirty days in the middle of each quarter. The call slips were arranged by student identification number. The uni- versity machine records department sup- plied the library with a complete list of students, arranged by student identifica- tion number. This list also included each Mr . Barkey is Librarian at Texas College of Arts and Industries. student's class standing, sex, name, and cumulative grade point average. The staff then counted the number of call slips for each student and noted beside his name the num her of books checked out. This study did not include reserve books. Some background information might help in interpreting the statistical results that follow. The library building was completed in 1950. It is new and pleas- antly lighted, and, although it is built in the "old manner" -two large reading rooms, reserve and reference, arranged on each side of a closed stack and circu- lation desk-it seems friendly and com- fortable. The library staff at the time of this study was composed as follows: cir- culation, two librarians; reference, two librarians; cataloging, two librarians; ac- quisitions, one librarian; serials, one li- brarian. The book collection, numbering approximately one hundred ten thousand volumes, is a well-balanced undergrad- uate collection. Table 1 indicates the books borrowed by all students. I 115 116 I College & Research Libraries • March, 1965 TABLE 1 Total number students Number students bor- rowing no books . Percentage of students borrowing no books Total students borrow- ing one book . . Total students borrow- ing 2 or 3 books . Total students borrow- ing 4 to 10 books . Total students borrow- ing 10 or more books . Number or per cent bor- rowing one or more books 1962 2,967 1,849 63% 264 372 381 101 1,118 or 37% 1963 3,847 2,318 62% 446 532 421 130 1,529 or 38% As can be seen from the above, 62 per J cent-63 per cent of the student body bor- rowed no books. Table 2 is a summary table adapted from Knapp1 and Brans- comb2 as a comparison. The first of three student character- istics (academic class, achievement, and sex) were covered in the 1962 sample. Knapp~s study discovered that "there was a total increase in use of the library between the freshmen and sophomore years and a total increase in the use of the library between the junior and senior years."3 Branscomb found that in "Uni- 1 Patricia Knapp, College T eaching and the Col- lege Library (ACRL Monograph No. 23, [Chicago: ALA , 1959]), p.23. 2 Harvie Branscomb, T eaching with Books: A Study of College Libraries (Chicago: Association of Amer- ican Colleges, 1940), p.35. 3 Knapp, op. cit., p.27. 2,292 2,438 836 486 738 2,967 3,847 TABLE 2 SUMMARY OF STUDIES SHOWING N 0 uSE OF LIBRARY Per Cent Withdrawing No Books Students in one university 2nd half spring semester . Students in 5 colleges 9 months . L. . . . Men students in "College B" one semester Wom en students one semester . . . Students Knox College one quarter . . . Eastern Illinois University 30 days (1962 ) . . Eastern Illinois University 30 days (1963) . . 42.0 10.6 36.6 28.0 48.51 63.0 62.0 versity A" the average number of with- drawals per student progressed evenly from 1.79 for freshmen to 4.97 for sen- iors. 4 Our findings seem to be almost the reverse of these· results. The fresh- men seemed to be using the library more. An interesting fact is that 44 per cent of the freshmen borrowed one or more books compared to 35 or 36 per cent of the other academic classes. Scholastic achievement in the 1962 study, because of certain mechanical problems in the machine records de- partment, did not include graduate stu- dents and some freshmen. As Table 4 indicates, these findings include 2,449 4 Branscomb, op. cit., p.35. TABLE 3 CoMPARISON OF AcADEMIC CLAss AND WITHDRAWALs Number and Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Per Capita Per Cent of Class of Total of Class Average Total of Borrowing Total Number Total Number Books in Total 1 or More Students Books All Per Student Class Students Books Borrowing Borrowed Books in Class Freshmen 1,031 35 451 or 44 15 1,895 40 1.8 Sophomores 674 23 238 or 35 8 847 17 1.2 Juniors 627 21 226 or 36 7 1,014 21 1.6 Seniors 455 15 161 or 35 6 675 14 1.4 Graduat~s 150 5 42 or 28 1 252 5 1.7 Special and Others 30 1 130 2 Total 2,967 100 1,118 4,863 100 I j 1 I , ... ~ . 1 .... l Patterns of Student Use of a College Library I 117 TABLE 4 GRADE PoiNT AvERAGES CoMPARED TO WITHDRAWALs A 4.0 to A 3.5 B 3.0 to B 2.5 C 2.0 to C 1.5 D 1.0 to D 0.5 F 0.4 to 0.0 of the 2,967 students enrolled in the spring 1962 quarter. This seems to indicate that more of the better students use the library and that the lower the grade point average the fewer library withdrawals. Conclu- sions drawn from the comparison of grade point averages and library with- drawals are not very reliable, however. Table 5 is an example. TABLE 5 OVER-ALL GRADE POINT AvERAGES CoMPARED TO THOSE OF STUDENTS BORROWING BOOKS Over-all grade point average (all stu- dents) . . . . . 2.45 Grade point average of students borrow- ing one or more books . . 2.50 Grade point average of students borrow- ing no books 2.30 In other words, a "C" or better could be earned without using the library; 56 per cent of those earning a "B" or "B-" did not use the library. Another way of putting this is that a total of 1,025 students earned from "A" to "B-"; however, of this total only 474, or 46 Per Cent of Total Number Group Total Per Cent Borrowing Borrowing Number of Grand at Least at Least ~ Students Total 1 Book 1 Book 118 4 75 62 907 37 399 44 1,344 55 529 39 73 3 16 22 7 1 14 2,449 . . . . 1,020 _, . ... per cent, withdrew books from the gen- eral collection. Branscomb, in describing a similar situation, said: "From the stu- dent's standpoint one could say that these students neglected the libra_ry' s resources because they found they did not need to use them in order to do ac- ceptable work."5 Sex was significant only in the number of men or women using the general col- lection. More women withdrew books, but the average number of books with- drawn per male student shows very lit- tle difference from the average number withdrawn per female student. Do these findings represent a rather dismal trend in library use? Or, is this merely the statistical picture of a dis- appointing "normal"? We, of course, have no way of knowing. Asheim has said: "Reporting the findings of research on reading is always a thankless task. 6 In a related study on faculty use of Eastern Illinois University library, re- 5 Branscomb, op, cit., p.47. 6 Lester Asheim, " A Survey of Recent Research," in Conference of the Undergraduate and L ifetime Reading Interest (Ann Arbor: University of Mich- igan Press, 1959) , p.3. TABLE 6 WITHDRAWAL BY SEX Number Per Cent of Average Checking Group Checking Number Number Out 1 or Out 1 or Books Books Total More Books More Books Withdrawn Withdrawn Men 1,746 605 34 2,465 4.0 Women ' 1,221 513 42 2,268 4.4 118 I College & Research Libraries • March, 1965 ported earlier,7 it was found that while the student population and gross book circulation doubled almost uniformly over a ten-year span, faculty use of the library, as reflected in such things as .average number of books circulated per faculty member, declined an alarming 50 per cent in a ten-year period. For fear that the statistical pic:ture just presented· be misunderstood, the following observations should be made. This study was made in years that saw the total library circulation increase nearly 30 per cent, to over one hundred ten thousand, a figure above average for a university of Eastern's size, and the all-time high for this institution. The general "'climate of feeling" that sur- rounds library operations on the campus is favorable. The administration is li- brary-minded, having obtained full fac- ulty rank and status, plus regular aca- demic vacations, for all of the profes- sional library staff. The campus does not have that indefinable core of ill feeling toward the library that seems to be pres- ent on some campuses. We find that in the library's busiest years, without ig- noring Parkinson's First Law, only 37 per cent and 38 per cent of the student 1 Patrick Barkey, "More on the Absent Professors," Library Journal, LXXXVII (April 1, 1962), 1346. body withdrew at least one book in two sample months from the general collec- tion. And this occurred during a time when the library was rushed enough to ask for an increase in student help baH- way through the term and after much discussion of an increase in library hours. Is this the picture in other institutions now riding the enrollment tidal wave? Are all university libraries, busy though they are, merely operating at one-third or one-haH capacity? Can the postwar increases in library use be explained simply as increases in student enroll- ment? And lastly, what is "'capacity"? Are we to find, like the operations group that built the Polaris, that one over- worked man can outperform two men operating at "'capacity." The library in this study could not have absorbed an- other 30 per cent increase in use and still have offered anything approaching professional-level library service. This study was undertaken to deter- mine the statistical pattern, if any, of student use of a specific university li- brary. It is not an attempt to present solutions to the complex of factors in- volved in the use-or nonuse-of that library. Perhaps the results presented here and the questions that arise from those results may be of value in the formation of future policies. • • Planning a Meal- Meeting? A NOVEL table tent, which ships flat and folds into an ALA pyramid, might be used by hospitality chairmen planning library staff dinner meetings, local library club banquets, or district or state library as- sociation banquets. Request the table tent, which is mailed free, from Membership Promotion, ALA Headquarters, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, 60611. • • ) •