Running head: STUDENT LIBRARY USAGE

Usage of Milner Library by Students at Illinois State University

Ashley V. Dusa

Aaron F. Gyllenhaal

Sabrina M. Khachi

Maddy C. Lawler

Samantha M. Wilp

Illinois State University

Abstract

College libraries have become a mainstay in almost every college campus. Through surveys,

interviews, statistical analysis and thematic analysis, we were able to gain insight on how

students at Illinois State University utilize its campus library, Milner Library. Our goal was to

figure out why students use the library, what resources they use and what type of environmental

conditions they prefer. We found that students study for exams, complete their homework,

collaborate with their peers and utilize some resources offered by Milner Library. In addition,

students believe the time they spend at Milner helps them learn, which then improves their grade

point average. We were also able to discover what resources students are aware of and use.

Milner Library is overall seen as a useful and positive resource by students at Illinois State

University.

Keywords: l​ ibrary, code, environmental conditions, resources, study habits

Libraries have become a mainstay on almost all college campuses across the world. They

are intended to give students a reliable and controlled environment in which they can complete

their schoolwork. Most college libraries offer additional resources to students that are intended to

enrich their educational experience. These resources include research databases, tutoring, books,

printing, workshops and more. Studies have found that students that utilize these resources have

increased academic success. There is a direct positive relationship between the amount of times a

student checks out books and their grade point average (Barkey, 1965). Furthermore, in majors

that require frequent use of literature such as history and sociology, there is also a direct positive

relationship between the frequency of a student checking out books and their grade point average

(de Jager, 1997).

In addition, first-year college students that use the resources offered at their library are

more likely to stay at their university past the first year. These increased retention rates are due to

the positive effect that academic guidance has on the morale of students (Soria, Fransen &

Nackerud, 2013). Retention rates also increase when students are given one-on-one attention

from tutors. Libraries that have increased funding that is used towards hiring more staff that

interact with students directly can result in higher grade point averages and lower dropout rates

among students (Mezick, 2007). For example, college libraries where students were given

individual help with researching through programs offered at the library had higher positive

impacts on the grade point averages than libraries that did not offer individual assistance (Bell,

2008).
 Thus, well-funded college libraries are beneficial both to the students at the college and

the college itself (Wong & Webb, 2011). The student retention rate and grades of the students

rise with the more resources offered by the library and funding given to the library. This will

increase the reputation of the school and make it more attractive to prospective students that

perform well on standardized tests and in school.

Methods

In order to gain a deeper understanding of how the Illinois State University student body

utilizes the resources offered at Milner Library, we distributed an online survey through

Facebook and other online social platforms. In the end, we collected 242 responses to our survey.

The demographic information we collected from the participants includes their gender, year in

school, and major. Then, questions asking about the time of day, length of visits, frequency of

visits and the resources used during each visit allowed us to gather information about the visit

made to the library itself. The last part of the survey includes five items that were measured

using a five-point Likert scale, where one indicates a very negative response and five indicates a

very positive response. These questions addressed topics such as how beneficial each visit is,

how productive time spent at Milner is, how beneficial the environment at Milner is for studying,

whether Milner has aided the student’s understanding of course concepts and whether the time

spent at Milner has increased their grade point average.

In conducting our survey and statistical analysis, we ran into a few ethical concerns. The

ethical concerns for the survey were minimal since the information collected does not put any of

the participants at risk. However, there were a few ethical considerations encountered when

conducting the statistical analysis. First, we decided to remove some of the surveys because they
either did not answer every question or they answered that they have not ever visited Milner. If

the respondent has never been to Milner, then they cannot answer the subsequent questions

accurately. In addition, we decided to remove some of the questions from the statistical analysis

because they could not be coded well. For example, the question regarding majors could not be

coded for because of the variety of answers. Overall, the survey and statistical analysis do not

have any major concerns ethically.

Of the 242 people surveyed, over 80% were female and 50% were juniors. About 50% of

people surveyed spent 2 hours at Milner per week and about 50% went one to two times per

week. By a large margin, printers and study rooms were the most utilized resources offered at

Milner. Evening and night were the most common times for students to utilize the library.

Our statistical analysis of the survey results focused mostly on the questions using the

Likert scale as their evaluation method. Since the Likert scale we used ranged from one to five,

three was the neutral answer. For all questions except one, the mean of the answers was above

three. This indicated generally positive responses. The only question with a mean below three

was the one asking whether Milner has helped students understand course concepts. The mean

for this questions was 2.95. The highest mean was for the question asking whether Milner has a

beneficial study environment or not. The mean for this question was 4.03, indicating a moderate

to high positive. For every question, the median was either 3 or 4. This indicates that at least half

of the students or more put a neutral or positive response to each question. For every question

except one, the mode was the same as the median. The one exception to this was the question

asking if Milner has a beneficial study environment. For this question, the median was 4 and the

mode was 5. For every question, the standard deviation was near 1. This indicates that answers
were fairly varied. Lastly, every question had the same maximum and minimum, meaning that

the range was the same. Overall, students view Milner as a positive resource and the majority of

students utilize it in some form.

In addition to surveys, we conducted interviews to obtain qualitative data about the usage

of Milner Library. For our interviews, we had 18 participants but we discarded one response.

This was because the interviewee stated that they have not visited the library, meaning that they

could not answer the subsequent questions accurately. Therefore, only 17 of the interviews were

viable. Each of us interviewed friends, making our sample a convenience sample. We met with

participants in a place that they felt comfortable such as their home or on campus.

The only demographic information we collected in these interviews was the major and

year in school of the participant. One participant was a sophomore, seven were juniors and ten

were seniors. Due to all of these students having been at Illinois State for over a year, they have

had a while to try out different study methods and figure out what works best for them. They also

have had time to learn about the different resources offered at Milner and have been able to

decide which of these resources are conducive to productive studying. The majors of the

interviewees varied greatly, which is similar to our survey data. The most frequent majors in the

interviews were finance and public relations.

The questions we asked in the interviews addressed topics such as what motivates the

student to go to Milner Library, what floor they prefer to go to, whether they go to the library

with friends or alone, what materials they have rented from Milner, what time of day they prefer

to go and how they think Milner has impacted their academic performance. These questions

helped us to look for indicators as to why people use the library.

analyze the collected responses. Of the interviews we used, every participant has spent time

studying at Milner, but the frequency of the visits varies from person to person. About half of the

respondents report going to Milner about 3-4 times per week. Homework and studying for tests

are the prime motivator for the participants to go to Milner. The floors that our interviewees

utilize the most are the third, fourth and sixth floors. This could be because these floors cover all

of the different purposes for floors at Milner. The third floor is the floor dedicated to group work,

the fourth floor is the quiet floor and the sixth floor is a mixture of the two. The response of the

participants varied in regards to whether they prefer to go to the library with their friends or

alone. However, most of them acknowledged that they do not get as much work done if they go

with others because their peers distract them. There were a few participants who rented books,

chargers, laptops and microphones. However, many of the students were not aware that they

could rent out anything. Students might utilize the resources offered at the library more if they

knew all the benefits they potentially offer. The majority of the students prefer to go to Milner

Library in the afternoon or night because that is when they have free time. However, a few

students felt that they were more productive in the morning because it is less busy and

distracting.

In order to sort through our interview responses and try to find trends in our data, we

conducted a thematic analysis. In this analysis, we decided to code the answers as a group.

Coding our responses together allowed for us to peer review the codes and ensured the correct

categorization of each response. We created two research questions that would help foster a

deeper understanding of the data we collected in these interviews. The first question we
developed asked, “What environmental conditions enable students to succeed at Milner?”. From

this question, the codes that we developed were noise level, isolation, comfort, scenery,

distractions, collaboration, social interaction and other. Next, we condensed these from eight

codes to five. The final codes for our codebook were isolation, comfort, noise level,

collaboration, and other. The other category was created because some of our responses could

not be coded because they did not pertain to our research question. Isolation was the first code

we developed. An exemplar response that helped us to create this code was, “I go alone because

I can’t study well with friends.” The response clearly identifies that the individual requires

isolation from their friends in order to focus. Noise level was the next code we discovered since

many of our responses mentioned how students needed to be in silence in order to stay focused.

The response that we found to best represent this concept was, “I go to the sixth floor because

it’s quieter than the third floor.” The next code is collaboration, which stemmed from answers

stating that students go to the library because they are able to work together and build off of each

other while studying. An example of this would be, “I go to the social floor because I study with

my sorority sisters and we help each other.” Another code we developed was comfort, which

refers to the fact that students feel comfortable studying at Milner. An example of this would be,

“I go to floor six because they have lots of space and comfy chairs.” The last category was other.

An example of this is, “I go both alone and with friends. It doesn’t really matter to me.” Since

the respondent's answer does not address our question, we put it in the other category.

The second research question that we used to code our interview responses was, “What

do people want to achieve when they are at Milner?”. We coded data collected from the

questions asking about motivation, what drives the student to visit Milner and if the library has
positively or negatively impacted the student’s grade point average. From this question we

created the following codes: studying, improved grade, focusing on homework, collaboration,

productive environment, motivation and other. Then we condensed these codes down to

studying, focusing on homework, improved grade, productive environment and other. Our first

exemplar answer involved the code studying, which referred to students that told us they study

for exams at Milner. An example of this would be, “Milner has helped my grades because it

helps me study.” The next code was focusing on homework. An exemplar answer would be, “I

go to Milner because it helps me to have a space to focus on my homework.” We also developed

a code for improved grades, meaning that students go to Milner because they feel as if it

improves their grades. An example of this would be, “Milner has positively impacted my

grades.” The next code we developed is productive environment, which stems from answers

where the participants stated they go to Milner due to its productive environment. An example of

this would be, “Milner was the only place I could find peace and quiet while I lived in the

dorms.” Lastly, we had another other category because some responses did not answer our

question. An example of this would be, “Stress and procrastination motivate me to go to Milner.”

This answer does not offer any commentary on Milner, but rather the interview participant.

Our interviews helped confirm our survey findings, which state that students benefit from

the resources offered at Milner. Motivation to visit Milner varies from student to student, and

these interviews aided our understanding of why people choose to spend time at the library.

Discussion

Through our research, we were able to develop some potential ways to improve the

students’ usage of Milner Library. Milner Library is more than a place to study, research and
print assignments, but often times we found students did not realize the other materials available

to them. We suggest that Milner Library should have a brief overview of their resources during

freshman orientation day and transfer day. Therefore, every student would be aware of all of the

different resources Milner has to offer. In addition, students use Milner Library for different

reasons, which is what allows Milner to be a great work environment for all students. Some meet

with other peers to work on assignments, while others simply go to Milner Library to complete

homework or study by themselves. Students were generally pleased with the different noise level

environments on each floor of the library, but did not know the different resources offered on

each floor. Therefore, we believe having a sign of the different materials available on each floor

would be beneficial for students as well. Students had positive comments on Milner’s resources

during finals week. They believed not only was it a great study place, but also a place where they

could de-stress by getting a massage, petting a dog, or getting free snacks. In summation, Milner

Library offers a variety of options that allow students with any learning style flourish

academically. These options gave students a positive outlook on Milner Library. The main

recommendation for bettering Milner would be promoting all resources to students since they do

not always take advantage of them throughout the school year.

Conclusion

The students who participated in our survey and interviews had an overall positive

attitude towards Milner Library at Illinois State University. We found that students utilize some

of the resources provided by Milner, feel that their time spent at Milner is productive and believe

that it has helped to improve their GPA. Each floor has specific environmental conditions that

different students prefer to study at. All of the floors in the library serve a different purpose to
students. Some students are productive when they are able to work together and are allowed to

socialize. On the other hand, other students are only productive when they are isolated and in

silence. Milner also provides floors that serve a balance of both these environmental conditions.

Our research found that students believe that visiting the library improves their GPA. Milner

provides a quiet space for students to study, but also a place for students to collaborate with each

other. Moreover, we discovered through our research that most students do not know about the

resources offered by Milner. However, we were able to discover what resources students are

aware of and use. In conclusion, Milner Library is seen as a useful and positive resource by

students and is used in some way by the vast majority of them.

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