The Relationship of Undergraduate Students’ Self-assessment of Library Skills to Their Opinion of Library Instruction: A Self-reporting Survey

College students, in general, are known to be lacking in their ability to effectively make use of academic library resources, yet in many previous studies these same students have estimated their library-use skills at inflated levels. Neither do college students in general often willingly take advantage of library instruction opportunities. A self-reporting survey was administered to forty first-year college students in order to investigate whether students’ tendency to over-estimate library use skills has an effect on student opinion about library instruction in general. Results from the survey not only indicate that such a relationship may exist, but also strongly support earlier findings that students rate their library use skills highly. Introduction Academic librarians often observe that university undergraduates have a difficult time using the resources available at the library to find the information they need for classroom assignments (Lombardo and Miree 2003, Maughan 2001, Quarton 2003, Rehman and Mohammad 2001). Yet students display a reluctance to enroll in library workshops designed to improve students’ understanding of effective library use. Furthermore, college students as a group show a marked tendency to over-evaluate their own set of library skills (Geffert and Christiansen 1998, Maughan 2001, Ren 2000). This pattern of behavior raises the question of whether a relationship exists between a student’s perception of his or her ability to use library resources and a belief about the basic value of library instruction. Problem The study reported here was designed to investigate the relationship between college undergraduates’ self-assessment of library skills and their opinion of library instruction. An examination of this relationship will contribute to an understanding of how college students view their ability to use library resources within the wider context of their educational development at the university level. This knowledge will also provide insight into the motivations behind students’ choices about actively pursuing selfimprovement in this area. Furthermore, the results of this study deepen our understanding of the factors affecting students’ willingness to take advantage of library instruction opportunities. Understanding the factors related to why students choose to neglect improvement of their library skills is important since we already know that many students lack what most librarians consider an adequate level of development in this area (Lombardo and Miree 2003, Maughan 2001, Quarton 2003, Rehman and Mohammad 2001). The results of the current study would have practical relevance as well. This information could facilitate the creation of library instruction courses that are more attractive to college students. By considering students’ perceptions and opinions about library instruction when working on course design, it is likely that performance in these classes would be generally positive. At the onset of this investigation, it was expected that those students who have assessed their own library skills favorably would also have a negative opinion about the value of library instruction. This belief was based on the assumption that students who believe they already have a firm grasp on the use of library resources are less likely to see a need for further assistance. Since a significant body of literature exists demonstrating that library instruction is effective in improving students’ understanding of how better to make use of library resources it would be valuable to better understand the nature of this relationship (Franklin and Toifel 1994, Leverence 1997, Lombardo and Miree 2003). Additionally, it is known that a majority of undergraduate students need refinement of their library skills (Maughan 2001, Quarton 2003, Rehman and Mohammad 2001, Seamans 2002)