Survey of American College Students

Book excerpt: college students in the United States evaluate their college library. The data in the report is based on a representative sample of more than 400 full time college students in the United States. Data is broken out by 16 criteria including gender, grade point average, major field of study, income level of students, type and size of college, and mean SAT acceptance score of colleges, among other variables. The report includes data on student satisfaction with electronic reserves, the range of databases and periodicals supplied, library supplied database use training, similar training on library workstations and software, reference services, photocopiers and printing services and other college library services. Just a few of the report¿s many conclusions are that: ¿Satisfaction with library electronic reserve was much greater among students from the higher income groups: more to 80% of students from homes with annual incomes of more than $150,000 per year said that they were either satisfied or greatly satisfied. ¿Students in the fine and performing arts seem the least satisfied with the provision of items on electronic reserve. Less than 40% of them expressed either satisfaction or great satisfaction. ¿In general, students seemed happy with the range of databases provided by their college library. Only 1.54% said that they would greatly dissatisfied and only 2.83% said that they were dissatisfied. Students who attend private college were someone more satisfied than students who attended public college. More than 73% of students attending private college said that they were either satisfied or greatly satisfied, while this was the case for a little more than 60% of public college students.