Abstract
The term “library anxiety,” coined by Mellon (1986), has been described as “an uncomfortable feeling or emotional disposition, experienced in a library setting, which has cognitive, affective, physiological, and behavioral ramifications” (Jiao et al. 1996, p. 152). High library anxiety levels have been associated with low research and academic performance. The current study investigates library anxiety in a sample of 279 undergraduate students of Greek tertiary education institutions. Anxiety levels were assessed using an aggregation of items from previously published scales to form the Greek Library Anxiety Scale (G-LAS). Data analysis shows that the G-LAS has good psychometric properties, with alpha values ranging from 0.931 to 0.703 for barriers with staff and rules barriers, respectively. Overall, students report low levels of total library anxiety (mean 2.4).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anwar, M. A., Al-Kandari, N. M., & Al-Qallaf, C. L. (2004). Use of Bostick’s Library Anxiety Scale on undergraduate biological sciences students of Kuwait University. Library & Information Science Research, 26(2), 266–283. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2004.01.007.
Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16(1), 74–94. doi:10.1007/BF02723327.
Bostick S.L. (1992). The development and validation of the library anxiety scale, PhD Thesis, Wayne State University.
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56(2), 81–105. doi:10.1037/h0046016.
Carlile, H. (2007). The implications of library anxiety for academic reference services: A review of literature. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 38(2), 129–147. doi:10.1080/00048623.2007.10721282.
Chatzilia, M., & Sylaiou, S. (2013). Assessing Information Literacy Skills among Undergraduate Students at the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. In Worldwide Commonalities and Challenges in Information Literacy Research and Practice (pp. 450–457). Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-03919-0_60.
Cleveland, A. (2004). Library anxiety: A decade of empirical research. Library Review, 53(3), 177–185. doi:10.1108/00242530410526583.
Ellis, J., & Salisbury, F. (2004). Information literacy milestones: Building upon the prior knowledge of first-year students. The Australian Library Journal, 53(4), 383–396. doi:10.1080/00049670.2004.10721685.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error: algebra and statistics. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 382–388. doi:10.2307/3150980.
Jiao, Q. G., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (1997). Antecedents of library anxiety. The Library Quarterly, 64(4), 372–389.
Jiao, Q. G., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Lichtenstein, A. A. (1996). Library anxiety: Characteristics of ‘at-risk’ college students. Library & Information Science Research, 18(2), 151–163. doi:10.1016/S0740-8188(96)90017-1.
Maughan, P. D. (2001). Assessing information literacy among undergraduates: A discussion of the literature and the University of California-Berkeley assessment experience. College & Research Libraries, 62(1), 71–85. doi:10.5860/crl.62.1.71.
Mellon, C. A. (1986). Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development. College & Research Libraries, 47(2), 160–165.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Jiao, Q. G. (2004). Information search performance and research achievement: An empirical test of the Anxiety-Expectation Mediation model of library anxiety. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(1), 41–54. doi:10.1002/asi.10342.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Jiao, Q. G., & Bostick, S. L. (2004). Library anxiety: Theory, research, and applications. Lanham, Massachusetts and Oxford: The Scarecrow Press.
Patton, B. A. (2002). International students and the American university library. MA Thesis, Biola University.
Skowronek, D., & Duerr, L. (2009). The convenience of nonprobability survey strategies for small academic libraries. College & Research Libraries News, 70(7), 412–415.
Song, Z., Zhang, S., & Clarke, C. P. (2014). Library anxiety among Chinese students: Modification and application of LAS in the context of Chinese academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40(1), 55–61. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2013.10.014.
Świgoń, M. (2011). Library anxiety among Polish students: Development and validation of the Polish Library Anxiety Scale. Library & Information Science Research, 33(2), 144–150. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2010.09.003.
van Kampen, D. J. (2004). Development and validation of the multidimensional library anxiety scale. College & Research Libraries, 65(1), 28–34. doi:10.5860/crl.65.1.28.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Doris, KA., Provata, PA., Vraimaki, E. (2017). Assessing Library Anxiety in Undergraduate Students Using the Greek Library Anxiety Scale (G-LAS). In: Kavoura, A., Sakas, D., Tomaras, P. (eds) Strategic Innovative Marketing. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33865-1_82
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33865-1_82
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33863-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33865-1
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)