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

Krista M. Soria is an Analyst in the Office of Institutional Research, Jan Fransen is Service Lead: Researcher and Discovery Systems, and Shane Nackerud is Technology Lead, Library Initiatives, all at the University of Minnesota; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. ©2017 Krista M. Soria, Jan Fransen, and Shane Nackerud, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC. 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.