Any perception one may have that high school students use the library predominantly for pleasure or as quiet refuge for homework is refuted by Diane D. Kester's study of 300 college freshman in rural North Carolina. Only five to ten percent of students used libraries for recreation. The purpose of Kester's study was to find out what library skills, if any, were transferred from high school to college. Kester found that there was little carry-over of library skills from high school to college, which she attributed to a lack of coordination between librarian and teacher. Insufficient materials, resources and services geared toward high school students may also have an affect on high school students' library skills.
Studies show that few libraries have specialized collections and staff for young adults.
Mary Nofsinger surveyed academic libraries across Washington State to find out what services they provide to high school students to improve library skills. In contrast to their deficiency in providing user education programs, the librarians surveyed felt that it was important for students to possess fourteen separate library skills in order to be successful in college. The library skills left wanting included interpreting index citations, distinguishing between different types of literature, and understanding subject hierarchies. The incongruity between library skill level expectations and available user education services parallels the gap between the heavy use of computer resources by high school students and the relatively inadequate quality and quantity of computer resources and services available to them. Recall Kester's work, discussed above, in which it was found that those students who received library skills instruction in high school were unable to define sufficiently, or even recognize online catalog and Boolean searching.