College Student Engagement with Digital Libraries

An annotated bibliography compiled by Christine Whitney

Catlow, J., Górney, M., & Lewandowski, R. (2015). Students as users of digital libraries. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML), 4, 861-869. Retrieved from http://www.qqml.net/papers/December_2015_Issue/4413QQML_Journal_2015_CatlowGornyetal_861-869.pdf

This article reports on the findings of an exploratory survey, then a follow-up targeted survey, presented to students at a Polish university as online questionnaires. Usage statistics pulled from the library’s server and the responses to the questions on the surveys provide a useful breakdown of how often the academic digital library is utilized by the students, the time spent using the collections per week, the types of documents sought and retrieved, the students’ previous experience with digital libraries, and the perceived usefulness, quality, and reliability of the information sources. Most helpfully, the authors of the study compare their findings to those of Sheeja (2010) and Liu and Luo (2011), both cited below. Catlow, Górney, and Lewandowski point out the similarities between the studies’ findings, but are right to acknowledge that further study is needed to arrive at any concrete conclusions. Overwhelmingly, respondents in the surveys rated the increase in the number of documents in the digital library’s collections as the top priority, results similar to those of Sheeja. Additionally, the authors indicate that 60% of students reported finding significant materials they would not have discovered without using the digital library, and conclude that this demonstrates the importance of digital libraries to education. The concrete data supplied by Samson (2014) on the correlation between digital library use and higher GPA is more convincing, but this finding is, nonetheless, significant evidence of the potential usefulness of digital libraries for students.

Gueval, J., Tarnow, K., & Kumm, S. (2015). Implementing e-books: Faculty and student experiences. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 10, 181-185. doi: 10.1016/j.teln.2015.06.003.

This mixed-method study focuses on the implementation of e-books in the classroom of a public nursing program. While e-books may seem to be beyond the scope of digital libraries created by cultural heritage institutions, it is not outside the scope of academic digital libraries and their use by college students. This study is particularly useful for its examination of student attitudes towards and acceptance of digital resources, as opposed to analog resources. Previous studies indicate that students prefer using print books to digital books, yet these students, required to purchase e-book bundles for their nursing courses, reported positive experiences. The authors set out to determine whether satisfaction increases with use over time, whether there is more productive learning with increased use, and whether initial self-evaluation of ability with e-books impacts satisfaction and ease of learning. Both faculty and students were surveyed, and the authors determined that while students reported greater proficiency by the end of the first semester, their satisfaction did not improve until the second semester. Based on these findings, the program has rightly tailored how they introduce e-books to the students, focusing more on orientation and giving students guidance on how best to use the books for their studies in the classroom and the clinic. Readers of this article can draw parallels between the outcome of this study and other programs implementing digital resources.

Liu, Z. & Luo, L. (2011). A comparative study of digital library use: Factors, perceived influences, and satisfaction. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(3), 230-236. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/science/article/pii/S0099133311000292

The authors of this study, researchers from the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, first conducted a pilot study of student use of digital libraries at San Jose State, then conducted a larger study at three different universities in Guanzhou, China. The purpose of their study was twofold: firstly, the authors sought to compare undergraduate and graduate student use of digital libraries; secondly, they wished to address the lack of user studies in non-Western cultures. They found that while both undergraduate and graduate students placed high value on 24/7 remote access and faster access, undergraduate students placed more value on the elimination of the need to check out a physical resource than graduate students. In contrast, graduate students placed greater significance on earlier access to the newest publications online provided by digital libraries. By examining both statuses of student, the researchers concluded that digital libraries need to be tailored to different students’ tasks if they are going to be used. When comparing this study to user studies conducted at American universities, it should be noted that there is no discernible difference in perceived value or use of digital libraries between Chinese and American students.

Matusiak, K.K. (2012). Perceptions of usability and usefulness of digital libraries. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 6(1-2), 133-147. doi: 10.3366/ijhac.2012.0044.

Matusiak’s article looks beyond quantitative analysis of digital library use by students and faculty to consider the impact of user perceptions of both ease of use and usefulness on students’ utilization of digital libraries. The article was published in 2012, and five years later it is still highly relevant to academic libraries and digital collection developers. The author’s findings reveal that not only do students and teachers perceive search engines to be easier to use than digital library portals – which are deemed too complex and difficult to use – but they also do not associate a digital library’s collections with visual resources of any kind. Where this article excels is in capturing the complex and protean nature of digital libraries as they continue to evolve, particularly in relation to the various information systems of academic digital libraries. It also pinpoints the reasons for the under-utilization of digital libraries at the institutions examined for this study, though it does not provide any solutions to these issues beyond a call for new discovery tools.

McMartin, F., Iverson, E., Wolf, A., Morrill, J., Morgan, G., & Manduca, C. (2008). The use of online digital resources and educational digital libraries in higher education. International Journal of Digital Libraries, 9, 65-79. doi: 10.1007/s00799-008-0036-y.

Rather than focusing on one library or a single user community, the authors of this article report the results from a nation-wide survey of digital library use in the classroom by faculty and instructors from 119 higher-education institutions. This article is particularly helpful for the study of college student use of digital libraries because the study determines how faculty view and value digital libraries. In turn, faculty attitudes towards digital resources affect how these resources are utilized in the classroom, whether students are encouraged to use them, and whether students are provided with the information literacy instruction and task-specific training necessary for them to utilize digital libraries effectively and efficiently. This ties in closely with conclusions about undergraduate use reached by Liu and Luo (2011) in a later study, which is cited above. Significantly, the authors of this study conclude that while the faculty respondents placed a high value on the usefulness of digital resources, and make the most use out of visual images and historic documents in the classroom, this does not translate into high usage by faculty – and, therefore, their students. They argue that there are several gaps between perceived value and actual use that need to be bridged. Considering the findings of other user studies that take into account faculty use and perceptions, this conclusion is valid and pressing.

Pan, B., Gay, G., Saylor, J., & Hambrooke, H. (2006). One digital library, two undergraduate classes, and four learning modules: Uses of a digital library in classrooms. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57(10), 1315-1325. doi: 10.1002/asi.20449.

The authors of this study, researchers at College of Charleston and Cornell University, set out to assess the contexts, usability issues, pedagogy, and subjective experiences of undergraduate students associated with using Cornell's Kinematic Models for Design digital library (KMODDL). Based on several methods of recording student responses to the KMODDL interface and collection, they determined that students were eager to use the digital library, but found it both entertaining and frustrating due to issues with usability. A confusing interface and the factor of mental models were the significant contributors to student frustration. Based on these responses and the answers given in student surveys, the authors conclude that digital libraries are most useful to students when they can be tailored to the specific context and purposes of their coursework and class materials. According to the authors, subjectivity, knowledge background, and cognitive styles all need to be taken into account when designing user interfaces for digital libraries. Going forward, they note, user subjectivity and its impact on pedagogy will pose interesting challenges to developers and designers of digital libraries. Their prediction has proved itself to be true, as this continues to be a problematic issue.

Samson, S. (2014). Usage of e-resources: Virtual value of demographics. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40, 620-625. doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2014.10.005.

While the focus of this study is on one specific library – the Mansfield library at the University of Montana – the author takes a broad look at the usage statistics of certain key demographics among undergraduates at the university to identify research needs, best outreach practices, and the correlation between digital resource use and student attainment. Her findings yield interesting results, and seems to point to the library’s desire for data that verifies to university administration its success in contributing to student learning outcomes and the institution’s mission. The study provides data supporting the connection between e-resource use and higher student GPA, across all majors and disciplines. Factors of gender, disability, and veteran status also play a key role in the study; the author determined that female students access digital resources from off-campus more than male students, that students with disabilities are not making use of digital resources at a rate commensurate with their proportion of the student body. It is interesting and encouraging to note that both faculty and students utilize the library’s digital resources at higher rates than expected, and this data is valuable to liaison librarians for use in constructing and conducting unique user outreach, collection development, and accessibility best practices.

Sheeja, N.K. (2010). Undergraduate students’ perceptions of digital library: A case study. The International Information & Library Review, 42, 149-153. doi: 10.1016/j.iilr.2010.07.003.

The 2011 user study by Liu and Luo cited above calls for increased examination of non-Western digital library usage among undergraduate students; this article, published a year earlier, examines the findings of a study of student use of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) digital library in Cochin, India. This particular digital library holds the documents generated by CUSAT’s instructors, researchers, and students, is open access, and receives thousands of visits from over 78 countries around the world. Compared to user studies conducted at American universities, it was surprising to learn that the response rate to the questionnaire was 89%, and of this number, 98% of respondents indicated they are aware of and use the digital library. The author of this study is a librarian and researcher in Library and Information Science at CUSAT, and found that while a high number of respondents are aware of and use the digital library, and the majority find the interface and search options helpful and easy to navigate, only 15% of students access it for project work. A higher percentage of students utilize the digital library to access previous years’ exam papers and their course syllabi. The author concludes that students are highly satisfied with the functionality of the digital library, but they would like to see training provided to undergraduates on its use and greater variety of collections represented. While this article is highly specific and narrow in its scope, it does have particular significance for the key issue of instruction and training on the use of digital libraries, a topic that figures in many user studies.

Van Scoyoc, A.M., & Cason, C. (2006). The electronic academic library: Undergraduate research behavior in a library without books. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 6(1), 47-58. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/pqrl/docview/216168871/5D885111941C452BPQ/2?accountid=14925

This baseline study examines data from an electronic academic library that is not anchored to a physical library space. Rather, it is a learning and information commons housed in the Student Learning Center at the University of Georgia. The authors report that most students turn first to Internet resources for their academic research, and cite that convenience is the key determining factor in undergraduate information use. As Matusiak’s 2012 study cited above indicates, these findings continue to be the norm amongst undergraduate students of every class status. Usefully, this study considers the impact of WebCT and other class websites, as well as instructor-fabricated research made available in classroom management systems such as Blackboard, on undergraduate use of digital information resources. In fact, the authors’ most compelling conclusions are drawn around the research assignments and requirements delineated by instructors, and the implications that these factors have for their students’ information literacy mastery. Although this is an older study, the authors establish a highly useful framework for understanding the impact of instructors on their students’ perceptions and use of digital libraries.

Wang, S., & Bai, X. (2016). University students awareness, usage and attitude towards e-books: Experience from China. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42, 247-258. doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2016.01.001.

While Gueval, Tarnal, and Kumm’s (2015) study of e-book use examines a limited sample size, Wang and Bai offer a broad study of e-book use among diverse demographic groups, factoring gender, year of study, major, and income level of students at Zhejiang University in China. Additionally, the types of electronic books accessed are considered, including leisure readings, monographs, reference, and academic publications, as well as textbooks, and represent a broad spectrum of academic disciplines. Most of the respondents (98.4%) were familiar with e-books, but only around 57.7% used them occasionally, with the highest usage among Humanities students. Significantly, the factors of year of study and economic background had the most impact on use of e-books and how they were accessed: third- and fourth-year students utilized academic resources more frequently than first- and second-year students, while use of specialized reading devices was determined by the students’ economic backgrounds. Other examinations of student attitudes towards e-books have noted the preference for print books, regardless of country or culture, but this study communicates a strong cultural and spiritual attachment of Chinese students to the history and tradition behind the printed book that is absent from, for example, American studies. The conclusion the authors report draw from this is that e-books can be seen to complement printed books, but will never replace them. Other conclusions they draw are the need for strategies to promote e-book usage, particularly by teachers in the classroom, the advisability of librarians working with publishers to minimize printing restrictions, and the importance of libraries making specialized reading devices available to all students.