College and Research Libraries Library Use Patterns among Full- and Part-Time Faculty and Students Jo Bell Whitlatch Trends in higher education are toward part-time students and majors in professional fields which are associated with low library use. Research findings at San jose University, Califor- nia, and other academic libraries, demonstrate that declining library use may be a future trend. Declining use will further erode administrative support for library budgets. Libraries must become more effective in identifying and meeting the information needs of new nontraditional students. User surveys establishing service priorities can be an effective tool in planning li- brary service for future student and faculty populations. peculation concerning the fu- ture of libraries has often fo- cused upon the advent of the ''paperless society'' and the effects of library automation. However, another trend may have a much more im- mediate and traumatic effect upon li- braries in our universities. Several recent trends in higher education enrollments re- quire the academic library to reassess ser- vices to a student body no longer com- posed primarily of full-time students obtaining liberal arts degrees. Enrollments in universities and colleges in the nation have been shifting toward the professional fields, particularly busi- ness and engineering, which rely less on literature and more on experience and handbooks. In the future, several fields are expected to show significant increases in the number of bachelor's degrees: com- puter and information sciences; business and management; communications; engi- neering and engineering technologies; health professions; and agriculture and natural resources. Decreases are expected in education, social sciences, letters, li- brary science, mathematics, and statis- tics. Full-time white males are now a student minority. Participation in higher educa- tion by members of subgroups other than white males has been increasing, 2 and over the past decade there has been a rise in the number of part-time students at our universities. 3 Many library studies have demon- strated that libraries are not, and never have been, regularly used by most people. A number of public library user studies have found that the public library is an in- stitution used by a minority of people. 4 Less well known is the fact that academic libraries also tend to be used by a minority of students. A recent study at DePauw in- dicates that 40 percent of the student body did not borrow a single library item during the semestel and that 10 percent of the students accounted for almost half of the circulation of all library materials. 6 Survey results from several academic libraries show that a consistently high percentage of students (from 10.8 percent to 63 per- c~nt~ do not make use of the library facili- ties. Surveys also indicate that the faculty heavily influences student use of the li- brary. Studies by Lolley, Naylor, and Lu- Jo Bell Whitlatch is access division head, San Jose State University Library, California . 141 142 College & Research Libraries bans have concluded that the majority of faculty do not expect students to use the liprary. There is heavy reliance on text- books and class-distributed materials. 8 Courses that predominantly involve skill development require materials that are readily accessible to the classroom, labora- tory, or shop. 9 The lack of emphasis on li- brary use in the curriculum at the fresh- man and sophomore levels has been shown to be the major reason why student use of the library is low in the first two years and increases with advances in class standing. 1° Knapp's study reported that one-quarter of the courses in college ac- counted for 90 percent of library circula- tion.11 A study by Lubans indicates that a much higher percentage of users ( 40 per- cent) than nonusers (19 percent) believe that professors encourage students to use the library .12 Past studies usually have shown that it is possible to do acceptable college-level work without using the li- brary's resources. 13 Hardesty has noted that students appear to be using (or not using) the library to the same degree they did more than forty years ago. Classroom teachers have not significantly changed their views toward the library, and librari- ans have been largely unsuccessful in in- fluencing classroom teachers. 14 Despite important innovations in library services such as bibliographic instruction and online literature searching, and as en- rollment and faculty changes move to- ward disciplines not relying heavily upon the library for information, library use can be expected to decline in the future. Chen and Hernon believe that the library has lessened its position as an information source by failing to ''service knowledge consumers' most basic needs." This un- dermines the library's claim to public funds. 15 Without a more complete under- standing of the patterns of information need and fulfillment, libraries cannot compete with other information providers in the struggle for survival. The alterna- tive to competition and adaptation is irrel- evance, disuse, and organizational de- cay. 16 Axford has noted that the serious funding problems of the next decade will inevitably lead to some management con- cepts infiltrating the budgeting and plan- March 1983 ning process at all levels of higher educa- tion. The most obvious example of this would be market principles that underlie the reluctant shift of resources from the traditional liberal arts programs to the pro- fessional schools-the inevitable conse- quences of enrollment pressures and student-driven budgets. 17 Specifically, data collected in a study at San Jose State University demonstrate that there are significant differences be- tween part-time and full-time faculty and student use of the library, with part-time students and faculty using the library less. There are also significant differences in li- brary use between faculty and students from the different academic disciplines. Significantly smaller proportions of stu- dents and faculty from the professional schools use the library. Data collected in the San Jose study not only confirm the major findings of most of the earlier user studies, but also suggest that enrollment trends and faculty hiring patterns will tend to make the library even more of a "minority" institution on the campus. San Jose State University is one of the nineteen institutions of higher education in the California State University System. The principal function of the Califorma State University System is to provide both undergraduate and graduate instruction (through the master's degree) in the lib- eral arts and sciences, in applied fields, and in the professions. San Jose State is one of the larger institutions in the system with 25,000 enrolled students (20 percent are graduate students) and 1,753 faculty (900 are tenured or tenure track). Gradu- ate instruction is offered in more than fifty fields. San Jose State is located in the large metropolitan San Francisco Bay area, with a student body sharing many common characteristics of other urban campuses. Many of the students come from nontradi- tional student populations: poor and lower middle class, older, married, minor- ity and ethnic groups, and students with jobs. At San Jose 40 percent of all students are part-time, with this proportion re- maining relatively constant over the past several years. Across the nation the per- centage of all faculty members who are employed part-time increased from 22.4 percent in 1968 to 31.2 percent in 1978. 18 In the seventies the proportion of part-time faculty also rose steadily at San Jose State. However, due to declining enrollment and high levels of tenured faculty, in the past two years the proportion of part-time faculty has dropped from the 1977/78 high of 37 percent to 27 percent in the spring of 1980. The student body at San Jose reflects the trends in future student populations in urban public universities. Following na- tional trends, 20 percent of all San Jose students are majoring in business; 13 per- cent in engineering; and 16 percent in ap- plied arts, which includes such areas as nursing, health science, administration of justice, recreation, and journalism. Only 30 percent have majors in the schools of humanities, social sciences, and science. Of the 60 percent tenured faculty at San Jose, more than half have their primary teaching service areas in the schools of hu- manities, social sciences, and science: only 10 percent are in engineering; 10 per- cent in business; and 15 percent in applied arts. The library houses 700,000 bound volumes, plus additional microform, me- dia, and curriculum collections. Because San Jose had been planning a new library which opened in February 1982, the university authorized the 1980 student and faculty library user surveys in order to assist the library in collecting in- formation regarding student and faculty research and information needs. Student and faculty perceptions concerning the adequacy of library services were useful in planning the new Clark Library. Library "use" and "users" are not well defined. A variety of measures, such as items bor- rowed, items used in the library, interli- brary loan requests filled, and reference questions answered, have been used to represent "use." "Users" have been rep- resented by terms such as registered bor- rowers, or persons actually borrowing materials. This study uses a self-report on the frequency of library visits. To obtain data on "general use" of the library, stu- dents and faculty were asked how often they usually used the library during a se- mester. Two other questions were asked of library users through the survey. Re- spondents were asked if they were satis- Library Use Patterns 143 fied, dissatisfied, or had never used spe- cific library services such as circulation, periodicals, reference, and government documents. Respondents were also asked if they used other libraries in connection with their San Jose State course work (for students) or teaching and research (for faculty). Therefore, the library user study provided an opportunity to examine the li- brary and responses from its primary com- munity based upon present services of- fered. Students numbering 1,470 (5.9 percent- of the total student body) were surveyed through a questionnaire given to a ran- dom sample of classes. The Testing Office of the university used a standard proce- dure to obtain the random sample: a schedule of classes in code number order was provided by computing services, and a book of random numbers was used to se- lect a sample from the list. Students sam- pled were generally representative of the actual proportions of students enrolled by class and major during spring 1980. The academic vice-president asked all deans and departmental chairpersons to distrib- ute a parallel survey to each of the full- and part-time faculty in their respective areas. Of the 1,753 faculty surveyed, 443 (a 25.3 percent response rate) returned the sur- vey. This response rate, while low, is not atypical for mail surveys. While faculty re- sponses were distributed fairly evenly across all schools, the results probably contain a bias toward frequent library us- ers because of the low response rate from part-time temporary faculty. An analysis of survey responses indicates that a sub- stantial portion of part-time faculty (20 percent) never use the library, compared with only 2.2. percent of the full-time fac- ulty. A much smaller number of tempo- rary faculty, most of whom are also part- time, returned the survey versus tenured or tenure-track faculty. This bias toward the frequent library user is not present in the student results where it is possible to obtain an almost 100 percent response rate through class administration. Verification of the accuracy of questionnaire responses is difficult; however, the questionnaire was pretested in one graduate and two undergraduate library science classes so 144 College & Research Libraries that questions would be designed to avoid misinterpretation of instructions or ques- tions leading to response errors. The data available from the student and faculty sur- veys were analyzed with the assistance of SPSS frequencies and crosstabs pro- grams. USER POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS As is true in other academic libraries, the recent user survey at San Jose State Uni- versity reveals relatively low general use of the library; 12.2 percent of the students never use the library, while only 29.6 per- cent use the library once a week or more during the semester. Use by faculty is also fairly low, 31.9 percent use the library once a week or more, and 5.2 percent never use the library. The majority of fac- ulty (62.2 percent) rely on purchased books and periodicals as their primary source of information for teaching and re- search, while only 29.1 percent rely on the library as their primary source. Surveys conducted in other libraries have found the percentage of part-time students who did not use academic li- braries as high as 50 percene9 and as low as 25 percent. 20 Pritchard and Payne also found that part-time students who at- tended classes during the day were more likely to use the library than evening stu- dents.21 As illustrated in table 1, students sel- dom or never using San Jose State Univer- sity Library are more likely to be evening students, part-time, female, and white or black rather than other ethnic groups. Stu- dents using the library frequently are more likely to be enrolled full-time and from Asian or Chicano ethnic back- grounds. Results from the faculty survey, illustrated in table 2, reveal that faculty seldom or never using the library are more likely to be evening instructors, part-time, and temporary. Faculty using the library frequently are more likely to be full-time, tenure-track, and teach classes primarily during the day. While 34.7 percent of all full-time students seldom or never use San Jose State University Library, almost half (45.8 percent) of all part-time students seldom or never use the library. A New March 1983 York University survey found that 57 per- cent of all students used the library at least once weekly; 22 only 29.6 percent of all San Jose students use the library weekly. At the time of the survey only 26 percent of the New York University student body was part-time, 23 while 40 percent of San Jose's students are part-time. The San Jose data support previous research findings on low library use by part-time students. The number of part-time students in a uni- versity appears to decrease the level of li- brary use significantly. Declining use levels may be slightly off- set by the increase in non-white ethnic populations, particularly in areas having high concentrations of Asian students. One of the most interesting results of the San Jose study is the significantly higher frequency of library use by Asians and Chicanos compared to other ethnic groups (see table 1). A recent study on the information needs of Californians found that Asians were highest in their use of li- braries as information sources, 24 and that Hispanics have the largest proportion who never use a library to seek informa- tion.25 In the case of San Jose's Chicano students, other factors such as educa- tional level must affect information- seeking patterns more than ethnic back- ground. As with other urban campuses, San Jose State students have convenient access to many other alternative resources. Other libraries are an important resource for San Jose State faculty and students; 57.5 per- cent of students and 70.2 percent of fac- ulty reported that other libraries are used during the semester in connection with San Jose State course work for teaching, study, and research. There are no signifi- cant differences between part- and full- time or day and evening students. Faculty using other libraries are more likely to be full-time, male, and tenured or tenure- track, but differences between day and evening teachers, while significant, are very small. Although Gocek does not find geographic proximity to be the .major de- terminant of use, 26 it is difficult to mea- sure, and others have found that it does play a role. Extension and commuting stu- dents are more inclined to use libraries TABLE 1 LffiRARY USER PA ITERNS: STUDENT POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS (N = 1,470) Class Time Class Load Sex Ethnic Background Fre~uency of Use Day& Full- Part- of S SU Library Eve. Day Eve. time time Male Female Asian Chicano Black White Seldom or never use (less than once/month) 27 .0% 38.2% 49.6% 34.7% 45.8% 30.6% 42.1% 21.9% 27.8% 38.7% 40.5% Occasional use (once/2-4 wks.) 36.2 34.0 30.9 35.2 28 .8 36.4 32.2 34.1 30.6 40.3 34.6 Frequent use (once/week or more) 36 .7 27.7 19.6 30.2 25.4 33.1 25.8 43.9 41 .6 21.0 25.0 99.9 99.9 100.1 100.1 100.0 100.1 100.1 99.9 100.0 100.0 100.1 No answer (6) (6) (6) (4) (4) (22) (22) (24) (24) (24) (24) x2 =46.13 x2 =27.98 X2 =36.00 x2 =90.56 df=15 df=10 df=10 df=30 p=.0001 p= .001 p=.0001 p= .0001 TABLE 2 LffiRARY USER PAITERNS: FACULTY POPULATION CHARCTERISTICS (N=443) Teaching Time Teaching Load Sex Apf~~~~-ent Fre~uency of Use Full- Part- f""'4 of S SU Library Day Eve . time time Male Female Tenured Track Temporary ""'. Seldom or never 0'" ... use (less than 20.9% 45.4% .5 once/month) 21 .7% 34.3% 19.8% 42.7% 21.5% 29.6% 15.6% C! Occasional use Ill (once/2-4 wks.) 43.8 46.1 46.8 33.3 44 .5 44.3 50.0 34.9 33.3 ~ Frequent use ""'C' ~ (once/week or :; more) 34.5 19.7 33.3 24.0 34.0 26.2 34.4 44.2 21.3 ~ e 100.0 100.1 99.9 100.0 100.0 100.1 100.0 100.0 100.0 Ill No answer (11) (11) (5) (5) (9) (9) (114) (114) (114) x2 =181 .37 X2 =405.88 x2=171 .73 X2 =247 .26 df=12 df=12 df=12 df=18 1-l p= .0001 p= .0001 p= .0001 p= .0001 ~ til 146 College & Research Libraries close to their homes than dormitory or nearby campus residents. 27 Of San Diego State University Library nonusers who used other college libraries, 91.7 percent indicated that those libraries were closer to their homes. 28 However, many frequent San Jose State students and faculty library users also used other libraries once a week or more (see figure 1). Only 10-20 percent of the students, but 40 percent of the faculty, who seldom use San Jose State University Library frequently use other libraries. Al- though few students and a substantial number of faculty who never use San Jose State University Library appear to use other libraries, frequent San Jose State Li- en Q) ·..-l I-I rtl I-I .0 ·..-l H I-I Q) ..c: +l 0 tJ'I ~ ·..-i en p Q) tJ'I rtl +l ~ Q) u I-I Q) p, 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 3x/week once/ week March 1983 brary users visit other libraries as a supple- ment to San Jose's resources. LIBRARY USE BY ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE Investigators have found that business and engineering undergraduates make relatively low use of the library. 29 Disci- plines in the humanities and social sci- ences usually account for the bulk of li- brary circulation. 30 The San Jose survey confirms results obtained from studies conducted at other academic libraries. Ac- ademic discipline is a significant variable in the level of general use of the San Jose State University Library. (See table 3.) Business students and business, ap- once/ once/ 2 weeks month or less never Frequency of Use of Other Libraries ___________ Students Using SJSU Library Once/Week or More xxxxxxxxxxxx Faculty Using SJSU Library Once/Week or More FIGURE 1 Use of Other Libraries by Frequent SJSU Library Users Library Use Patterns 147 #- plied arts, and engineering faculty were u. ~ (1') ~io: li) C"i 0 0\ least likely to use the library. Business, ap- "<:!' (1') N 0\ plied arts, and engineering faculty also #- had high proportions of temporary faculty V) 0\ 0\ r:io: (42.9 percent, 25.0 percent, 51.2 percent), 0 ..0 N 0\ "<:!' (1') N 0\ while other schools averaged 15-17 per- #- cent. Since survey results indicated that u. 00 0\ ~~~ temporary faculty are less likely to use the N N "<:!' 0 "0 (1') "<:!' N 0 library (see table 2), the high proportions ~~ rl p..!-o of temporary faculty in business, applied o..< #-<( arts, and engineering further decrease the V) 0\ L() ~~~ o\ t...: N 0 use of the library in these disciplines. (1') (1') N 0 rl Therefore, discipline is a more important #- variable than part-time status. This is u. li) L() ~~~ somewhat difficult to determine because c:: t...: N 0 0 0 N L() N 0 the numbers of temporary faculty under--~ rl ::I represented the faculty respondents. "0 #-J.t.l Temporary and part-time status do not li) L() o:io: N t...: 0\ 0\ have a uniform influence across schools. C') (1') N 0\ #- Despite the high proportion of temporary u. N L() ~io: faculty in applied arts (42.9 percent) rela-t...: o\ (1') 0\ tive to business (25 percent), applied arts ...J eo C') (1') N 0\ • .!.C:: still has a much lower proportion of fac-0 ~t 0 J.t.l~ #- ulty who seldom or never use the library :r: c:: 00 \0 ~~~ u .....; 0 r.... 0 (see table 3). Also, a much higher propor- Cf')(/) C') (1') (1') 0 rl tion of part-time students seldom or never ~>- ~1:0 #- use the library (see tables 1 and 2). How-r:c~ < - ~ u. N L() ~~~ ever, schools with the greatest proportion 0 o\ 0 0 (--4>- ~ N "<:!' (1') 0 of part-time students (education, 31.2 per- rl ~ -~ cent, and social science, 17.2 percent) ;2 (/) #- have much smaller proportions of stu- f9 rl 00 ~~~ rl t...: rl 0 dents seldom or never using the library ...J C') (1') (1') 0 rl (32.5 percent and 31.1 percent as noted in #- table 3) than applied arts, where only 7.7 0 "<:!' ~~~ 00 percent of students are part-time, but 39.9 u. N t...: 0 0 ~~ nl~ rl C') L() 0 II§ percent seldom or never use the library. '"""" ·- c:: Social science faculty was the only group u~ "'-. ~~ #- ~II with more than half of its population us- rl N ~~~ II"'-V) .....; \.Ci N 0 ~;?; ing the library once a week or more. (1') C') (1') 0 &;II '"""" <')~ Use of specific services within the li- a- ..... brary, such as current periodicals and ref- #- Nil~ u. \() "<:!' ~~~ :>< ·c: '"""" library. As noted earlier in table 3, general e ~~ ::I #- use of the library was usually lower in the ::r: L() 0 ~~~ • (I) ~ V) >. c:: 3: professional schools. A much lower pro-t...: I!) r.... 0 .=: ca (I) ;:1 0 c:: N C') (1') 0 ~ c:: "' portion of students and faculty in the pro-rl ""._ 0 II R~- fessional schools tends to use the major .... t.L..;:!:(f) Q) • iJ' II~ types of information services presently of-> Q)] .... ~ :2; II ~ Q)~-~~(1)0 fered by the library. ::>~ ~ Cll..J:: (/)~ ]':'~ !~ .... -::; 1:: 'iU "<:!' :::3 Q) cii"Ei- Faculty and students were also asked to o~o§~i::~ u..J sQ)s ..... aJ(l).._ II~ "3 rate the importance of San Jose State Uni- ~~ .gcaJ ~ u g.~~ ~~~ versity Library as a source of information >- ........ gUi' Q)~~~§~~o ~ 0 0 ~0 (/) :::3 0 0 -J:.l.. -2. s :.::~:.t.~ for studies (students) or research and 148 College & Research Libraries teaching (faculty). Respondents were asked to rank San Jose State University Li- brary relative to a popular book or maga- zine, a colleague (for faculty), a professor (for students), or another library. Less than half of the engineering, science, busi- ness, and applied arts students ranked San Jose State University Library in their top two choices, as did a similar percent- age of business, applied arts, education, and engineering faculty. Some improvement in use of services could be made by strengthening book and periodical collections in the applied arts, since the highest proportion of students desiring more new books and periodical subscriptions are enrolled in applied arts. However, students and faculty in some professional schools do not appear to be greatly interested in strengthening the tra- ditionallibrary services. Engineering fac- ulty and students have the lowest rate of interest in acquiring new books and peri- odicals. Only 58.6 percent of San Jose students think that faculty in their major field are ·familiar with the library. The highest pro- portion of students stating that library re- sources are frequently required for study and research are majors in the schools of education, humanities, and social sci- ences (see table 4). Thus, results at San Jose, as well as find- ings in other academic library studies, in- TABLE4 STUDENTS AND FACULTY INDICATING THAT COURSES IN MAJOR AREA FREQUENTLY REQUIRED USE OF THE LIBRARY FOR STUDY AND RESEARCH Students Facul~ School (N=1470) (N=44) Education 37.5% 35.0% Humanities 30.8 33.8 Social science 29.3 30.7 Applied arts 26.2 41.4 Science 19.3 24.2 Business 15.6 29.2 Engineering 7.0 11.6 No answer ,.(125) (11) x2 =144.32 x2 = 111.65 df=44 df=36 p=.OOOl p= .0001 Note: Students and faculty were asked how often assign- ments in courses involved using library resources other than materials on reserve . Possible choices were : frequently, some- times, rarely, never. March 1983 dicate that faculty and students in profes- sional programs, such as business and engineering, tend to make less use of the library than students and faculty in the traditional liberal arts programs, particu- larly in social sciences and the humanities. Therefore, the national shift from liberal arts to professional fields in student ma- jors is likely to result in less use of library resources and ·more graduates who have not regularly used libraries as part of their college education. CONCLUSIONS We can expect use of academic library collections and resources to decline be- cause of (1) the trend toward part-time students and (2) majors in disciplines that are generally correlated with low library use. Libraries are already having serious budget problems. Declining use could be devastating if the administration con- siders the library less essential to the uni- versity, and therefore a logical area to cut funds. Librarians must assume a leadership role in developing student skills in library and information use as part of undergrad- uate instruction. A vigorous and aggres- sive bibliographic instruction program that reaches out to all students and faculty is an obvious answer to low library use and has been much discussed in the litera- ture. Colleges and universities across the nation are reexamining the curriculum and resurrecting core requirements. The new national interest in general education can serve as a vehicle to increase use of the library if an active bibliographic instruc- tion program is developed as an integral part of the general education program of the university. In reviewing general edu- cation requirements, weaknesses in stu- dent library skills and the increasing im- portan·ce of these skills for many occupations as well as understandin~ cur- rent developments have been noted. 1 Ob- jectives of the California State University System general education program in- clude II. • • to find and critically examine information . . . and . . . an understand- ing and appreciation of · principles, methodologies, value systems, and thought processes employed in human in- quiries. '' San Jose has developed a library instruction program as part of the general education lower- and upper-division writ- ing requirements. Since the lower- division unit was implemented prior to this survey, and the upper-division unit during fall 1981, the results of this survey can be used as baseline data for future evaluation of the bibliographic instruction program. An active bibliographic instruction pro- gram may influence faculty attitudes to- ward library use. In the United States, the tradition in faculty teaching does not in- volve extensive use of the libr~ry nor en- courage students to use the library to for- mulate research topics or independent inquiries. Faculty usually direct the read- ings or identify topics of inquiry in semi- nars. Studies have suggested that re- search findings are not a major source of information; that local or informal con- tacts are common sources of new ideas; 32 and that libraries are regarded as sources of further information once a research topic has been identified. 33 Further evi- dence that faculty do not normally require library use for courses is supported by a finding that there is little relationship be- tween academic achievement and library use. One study did find that as a student's grade point average rose, so did the re- ported use of the library; 34 however, the data collected at San Jose do not confirm this thesis. Respondents were asked to list their grade point averages. Based upon self-reported grade point averages, library use appears to have little relationship to A (4.0), B (3 .0), or C (2.0) grade point aver- ages, although there is a significant differ- ence between very poor academic stu- dents (below 2.0) and others. This academic tradition in teaching will be very difficult to change. However, in- corporating required library instruction into both lower- and upper-division gen- eral education writing requirements as San Jose has done, should have several positive effects. At the very least, the pro- gram will encourage faculty members to identify the library as a more frequent source of information on designated re- search topics. Future faculty, who discov- ered the use and value of library resources Library Use Patterns 149 as students, will be more likely to incorpo- rate use of library resources into courses they teach. Librarians and faculty, through working together, particularly in the upper-division general education pro- grams for majors in professional fields, have the opportunity to determine whether the professional programs sim- ply do not require the same level of library resources as the humanities and social sci- ences or whether low use is a symptom that the information needs are strong, but not met by existing library services. Thus, a bibliographic instruction program could contribute to changing the teaching tradi- tion. However, bibliographic instruction is not a sufficient solution. Research on information-seeking patterns has gener- ally concluded that cost to the user is the most important factor in determining the source of information selected. Cost to the user has been identified as the value of the user's time-in terms of the user's percep- tions of the convenience and efficiency of library services. 35 Studies have identified the lack of time as the principal reason for nonuse, particularl:X among the em- ployed, 36 part-time, and evening stu- dents. 38 A 1976 New York University sur- vey reported that time, difficulty in obtaining materials, purchasing materi- als, and lack of need for library materials were the principal reasons for infrequent use. 39 When material is needed to obtain information, Californians are most likely to buy or subscribe to the material. 40 Na- tionwide survey results indicate that book readers purchased their own books or bor- rowed them from a friend more often than they borrowed them from a library. 41 There is some evidence that larger li- braries create greater difficulties in locat- ing materials. Commuting students with limited time expressed preference for the public library despite limited collections. 42 In one area, smaller polytechnic libraries received hi%her use despite shorter eve- ning hours. Results at San Jose confirm the general findings from other libraries that lack of need and cost to the user are the two prin- cipal reasons for low use. The greatest proportion of students reported no need 150 College & Research Libraries March 1983 STUDENTS Reorganizing the Library 39.5% ~:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. : J ·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:· Written Library Guides 38.3% W/11/11//J /1/IIJ/Il/1 1/A Shelving 36.1% 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 FACULTY Security of Materials 52.2% Periodical Subscriptions 44.9% . Shelving 43.2% 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 Other service improvements not listed among the top four choices of students or faculty were: extended hours, tele- phone renewal, automating circulation, personal security, staff help in books tacks and at service desks, closed peri- odical stacks, and discarding outdated materials. FIGURE2 Service Improvements: Student and Faculty User Priorities (38 percent), followed by poor organiza- tion of the library (26 percent), and greater convenience of another library (11 per- cent). Of the faculty who never or seldom use the library, the majority gave as the reason greater convenience of another li- brary (38 percent), followed by no time (23 percent), no need (21 percent), and poor organization of the library (15 percent). Library hours do not appear to be a pri- mary reason for low use. The San Jose study confirms the results of the New York University survey finding that fre- quent users were most dissatisfied with li- brary hours. 44 At San Jose, 43.6 percent of students who used the library three times a week or more believed that the library hours were not always adequate. A much higher proportion of evening students ( 48 percent) indicated that library hours were not always adequate than did day stu- dents (26.7 percent). But a slightly smaller percentage of evening students (22 per- cent) rated extended hours as a very im- portant service improvement than did daytime students (25.5 percent). An in- crease in the main library hours, now seventy-seven hours per week during the semester (excluding reserve), appears more likely to increase use by already fre- quent users rather than attracting the non- user. Because survey results indicate that the greater convenience of another library in a large urban area determines use, it is par- ticularly desirable to strengthen direct ·re- ciprocal borrowing and access programs between institutional libraries. Such pro- grams should then be supplemented by further identification of special collections in the area and planned regional coopera- tive collection development programs be- tween public, special, and academic li- braries. In the San Jose survey, students and fac- ulty were asked to rate certain possible im- provements in library services as "very important,'' ''important,'' ''not impor- tant, 11 or "no opinion. II Given the exist- ing knowledge about the nature of information-seeking patterns, it can be presumed that students and faculty would rate most highly those service im- provements perceived to reduce the cost (i.e., effort) to themselves as users. Con- tinuing nationwide declines in budgetary support to libraries, as well as other edu- cational and public service institutions, will make offering service improvements difficult. Therefore, it is discouraging to note the difference in student and faculty user priorities (see figure 2). The top four choices of the faculty tend to focus on the acquisition, preservation, and mainte- nance of the book and periodical collec- tions, whereas students give equal prior- ity to improved orientation and organization and the ordering of new books. Both faculty and students do rate improvements in reshelving of materials and acquisition of new books as top Library Use Patterns 151 choices. In summary, besides a strong li- brary instruction program, academic li- braries need to identify top user priorities and focus on improving these services. The San Jose State University Library might best encourage use through reduc- ing costs to both faculty and student users by attempting to improve the current ac- quisition · and reshelving rates for library materials. Since book budgets are declin- ing, it will be important to consider histor- ical and future trends in use of library ma- terials when selecting current acquisitions. Despite current developments in library automation, library research is still a time- consuming, labor-intensive effort for the individual user. User surveys that estab- lish user priorities for service improve- ments and common priorities of different user groups can be an effective tool. Tech- nology has contributed to reducing user effort in such areas as online literature searching and automated circulation sys- tems. However, the new technology is of- ten available in such areas as online searching only for a fee. Databases in dis- ciplines that make extensive use of the li- brary, humanities and history, are still largely undeveloped because of limited business, defense, or government funds for investment in these areas. Investment in top-priority user service improvements should make the use of the library less costly for most users, thus enabling the li- brary to be a major information resource, if not the ''heart of the university,'' for an increased number of students and faculty. REFERENCES 1. Martin M. Frankel and Debra E. Gerald, Projections of Education Statistics to 1988-89 (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, 1980), p.56-59. 2. "How Changes in Enrollment Will Affect Higher Education," Today 's Education 70:57 (Feb .-March 1981). 3. Allan W. Ostar, "Part-time Students: The New Majority for the 1980's," Chronicle of Higher Educa- tion 23:56 (Oct. 7, 1981). 4. W. Lyle Eberhart, "A Closer Look: Gallup Survey of American Adults Assesses the Role of Li- braries in America," American Libraries 7:206-7 (April1976) . - 5. Larry Hardesty, Student Use of the Libraries at DePauw University (ED 187 335) (1980), p.S. 6. Ibid., p.ll. .. 7. Harold Mendelsohn and Karen Wingerd, The Use of Libraries and the Conditions That Promote Their 152 College & Research Libraries March 1983 Use (ED 022 489) (Washington, D.C.: National Advisory Commission on Libraries, 1967), p.i-36. 8. Alice P. Naylor, Suroey of Faculty Expectations: Student Homework (ED 097 027) (Toledo, Ohio: Uni- versity of Toledo, 1974), p.2. 9. John L. Lolley, Vocational Teachers and the College Library (ED 188 704) (1980}, p .6. 10. John Lubans, Jr., A Look at Library Use Instruction Programs: The Problems of Library Users and Non- Users (ED 093 311) (Boulder, Colo.: Colorado University Libraries, 1972), p.10 . ., 11. Mendelsohn and Wingerd, The Use of Libraries, p.i-35. 12. John Lubans, Jr., "Library Use Instruction Needs from the Library Users'/Nonusers' Point of View: A Survey Report," in his Educating the Library User (New York: Bowker, 1974), p.408. 13. Mendelsohn and Wingerd, The Use of Libraries, p.i-32. 14. Hardesty, Student Use, p.34. 15. Ching-chih Chen and Peter Hernon, Information Seeking (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1982), p.xiii. 16. Ibid., p.7. 17. H. William Axford, "Collection Management: A New Dimension," Journal of Academic Librarian- ship 6:326 Gan. 1981). 18. "How Changes in Enrollment Will Affect Higher Education," p.57-58. 19. Alan Pritchard and Philip Payne, Part-time Students: Their Use of a Polytechnic Library (ED 191489) (London: City of London Polytechnic Library and Learning Resources Service, 1980), p.16. 20. Larry Orton and John Wiseman, "Library Service to Part-time Students," Canadian Library Journal · 34:25 (Feb. 1977). 21. Pritchard and Payne, Part-time Students, p.23. 22. ''Elmer Holmes Bobst Library: A User Survey; Spring 1976,'' in Association of Research Libraries, comp., User Suroeys and Evaluation of Library Seroices (Washington, D.C.: The Association, 1981), p.18. 23. Ibid., p.17. 24. California State Library, California's Governor's Conference on Libraries and Information Ser- vices, Information Needs of Californians (1979}, p.3-4. 25. Ibid., p.5. 26. Matilda A. Gocek, Library Seroices for Commuting Students (ED 037 228) (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Southeastern New York Library Resources Council, 1970), p.14-15. 27. Pamela Reeves, Library Seroices for Nontraditional Students: Final Report (ED 184 550) (Ypsilanti, Mich.: Eastern Michigan University, 1979}, p.13. ,28 .. Mary Ada Burns, The Relationship between the Use of the San Diego State University Library and Selected Personal Characteristics of the Student Population (ED 154 807) (1977), p .32. 29. John Lubans, Jr., "Student Use of a Technological Library," International Association of Technologi- cal University Proceedings 4:12 Guly 1969); and Lou Ellen Crawford, Confirmation and Interpretation of Student Attitudes toward the Library at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (ED 16714.8) (1977), p.19. 30. Hardesty, Student Use, p .15. 31. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Missions of the College Curriculum (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1977), p.ll. 32. Carl H. Rittenhouse, "Educational Information Uses and Users," A V Communication Review 19:77 17$\ (Spring 1971). ~Barbara Skelton, "Scientists and Social Scientists as Information Users," Journal of Librarianship 5:144 (April1973) . 34. Lubans, "Student Use," p.10. 35. Yale M. Braunstein, "Costs and Benefits of Library Information: The User Point of View," Library Trends 28:80 (Summer 1979). 36. Alice P. Naylor, Suroey of Student Life Patterns at the Community and Technical College (ED 097 020) (Toledo, Ohio: University of Toledo, 1974), p.7. 37. Orton and Wiseman, "Library Service," p.25. 38. Crawford, Confirmation and Interpretation of Student Attitudes, p.19 . 39. "Elmer Holmes Bobst Library," p.18. 40. Information Needs of Californians, p.4. 41. Eberhart, "A Closer Look," p .207. 42 . Gocek, Library Seroices, p.l9. 43 . Pritchard and Payne, Part-time Students, p.21. 44. "Elmer Holmes Bobst Library," p.26.