College and Research Libraries 172 College & Research Libraries inventories are neither unaffordable nor unmanageable and they produce a more than reasonable return for the effort ex- pended. It might, therefore, be prudent for library managers to resist the urge to reject such a project out-of-hand simply March 1985 because the holdings are large. In closing, a II catch-22" admonition may be in order: if a sample inventory at a library is confus- ing and expensive (slow), it probably indi- cates that a complete inventory is badly needed. Purposes and Uses of Residence Hall Libraries Gail Oltmanns and John H. Schuh This paper describes a study of student use and perceptions of their residence hall libraries at Indiana University. A telephone survey of stu- dents in residence centers and a user survey conducted in the libraries were the two methods used to collect the data. The responses indicate that students do, in fact, use their residence hall libraries. Most frequently, they use the magazine and newspaper collections. Records and audiocassettes, class-related materials, and study space are also frequently cited iiS popular uses. Because there are other libraries on cam- pus that serve the academic needs of students, it seems reasonable to develop residence hall li- brary collections to fulfill the supplemental, leisure-reading needs of student residents. Libraries have been developed in resi- dence halls for a variety of reasons. Resi- dence hall libraries enrich the educational experience of resident students, provide easy access for students who have refer- ence questions, and serve the general li- brary needs of students by making books, magazines, newspapers, records, and tapes available to students in the place where they live. Furthermore, residence center libraries may ease the demand for study space and materials in the main li- brary. · The first residence hall libraries were started at Harvard in 1928 where a library was developed within each of seven houses. This system became the model for future residence hall library systems. Soon after Harvard established its house libraries, B. Lamar Johnson established six dormitory libraries at Stephens College in Missouri. Yale created nine college li- braries and a number of other colleges and universities developed residence hall li- brary systems, although their scope and level of sophistication varied considera- bly. Some of these programs disappeared, however, due to lack of interest or finan- cial support. Others grew stronger. Spe- cific reasons that contributed to colleges and universities sustaining the viability of residence hall libraries included adequate funding for the purchase of current mate- rials, adequate staff, and the security of materials in the libraries. The University of Michigan and Indiana University- Bloomington (IUB) currently operate the largest residence hall library systems with eleven in each system. Although residence hall libraries have existed for more than fifty-five years, little has been published about them. Several articles appeared in the 1930s that dis- cussed the Harvard system, 1 the Stephens College dormitory libraries/ and a dormi- tory library established at the University of Chicago. 3 Harvie Branscomb (1940) de- voted a chapter of Teaching with Books to the discussion of residence halls libraries. He argued that books should be available to students in their residence centers be- cause, 11 on a college campus, which exists for teaching purposes, books should be in Gail Oltmanns is assistant head, undergraduate library seroices, and John H. Schuh is associate dean of stu- dents and director of residence life, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405. the atmosphere."4 Between 1940 and the late 1960s a few articles were published that primarily discussed individual library systems. A detailed description of the University of Michigan system appeared in 1968. Onva Boshears and Gary Strong described a use survey which had been conducted in one of the dormitories. They distributed questionnaires to 1170 resi- dents of a dormitory. More than one thou- sand questionnaires were completed and returned. The data showed that "only eighteen percent indicated that they never used the library, while eleven percent in- dicated active use on either a daily or weekly basis, and seventy-one percent re- ported occasional use of the library.' ' 5 This report represents one of the few times that data were collected that described how frequently and for what purposes the resi- dential unit library was used. In 1969 Edward Stanford conducted a survey of institutions with residence hall libraries. He discussed why some libraries had failed and outlined the characteristics of successful programs. 6 Following Stan- ford's article almost nothing appeared in the literature until 1978 when Susan Ariew published her study of II open ac- cess'' residence halllibraries. 7 Her conclu- sions regarding the failure of 11 open ac- cess" policies resulted from a literature review and responses to a questionnaire mailed to institutions that had residence hall libraries. At Indiana University, libraries are lo- cated in each of the eleven single student residence centers. The first of these li- braries was opened in 1941 and the collec- tion was financed by profits from vending machines located in the residence halls. As profits increased libraries were added to other residence halls. By 1969 all halls had libraries. The libraries are open fifty-eight hours per week and are managed by graduate assistants who are students in the School of Library and Information Science. In ad- dition to the graduate assistants, four to seven part-time student employees are as- signed to each library. The libraries con- tain a variety of materials and equipment: hardcover books including reference ma- terials, paperback books, newspapers, Research Notes 173 magazines, records, · audiocassettes, vid- eocassettes, art prints, and equipment such as typewriters, calculators, and play- er/recorders. The average number of books per library is 7,000 and each library holds approximately 1,200 records and tapes. Stated succinctly, the purpose of the Halls of Residence Libraries (HRL) system is to assist in meeting the cultural, recreational, and academic needs of stu- dents who live in the residence centers. The study conducted at Indiana Univer- sity was designed to measure the percep- tions of students about selected aspects of the residence hall libraries. Several ques- tions guided the study: 1. For what general purposes do stu- dents use the residence hall libraries? 2. How frequently do students use the residence hall libraries? 3. What specific library services are uti- lized by patrons of the residence hall li- braries? 4. Why do infrequent users of the resi- dence hall libraries not use the libraries more frequently? METHOD The study was conducted in two parts. The first part sought the perceptions of a randomly selected group of students who participated in a telephone survey. The second part of the study involved collect- ing the perceptions of students who par- ticipated in a survey of users of the resi- dence hall libraries during a two-week pe- riod of time. Sampling The telephone survey was conducted with a sample of 1,050 students (approxi- mately 10 percent of the residence hall population). The telephone numbers of students living in the residence halls were drawn randomly from a room-by-room roster of students living in the residence halls in March 1983. One hundred tele- phone numbers were drawn for residence halls housing 1,000 or more students (N = 10) and 50 were drawn for the one res- idence hall that housed 550 students. A to- tal of 735 students participated in the tele- phone interviews for a response rate of 70 percent. 174 College & Research Libraries The users' survey was conducted in late March and early April 1983. Any student who used a residence hall library during this time could complete the survey ques- tionnaire. Ultimately, 535 users com- pleted the survey. Instrumentation All the items for the telephone survey were highly structured and elicited a yes or no answer or a very short response. A brief pilot study was conducted to make sure that the items were easily understood by the respondents. Items for the users' survey were pre- pared in consultation with professional li- brarians. The questionnaire was reviewed by several students for clarity and under- standability before it was distributed. Data Collection Data were collected in the telephone survey by making calls to the numbers that had been drawn. In most cases four students shared the same telephone, so any one of the four could have responded to the call. Student workers administered the questionnaire to the respondents. The questionnaires for the participants in the users' survey were provided to po- tential respondents through each resi- dence hall library. Users were asked by the center librarians or other library work- ers to complete the instrument in the li- brary and return it to the library em- ployee. Data Analysis All data were transferred from the ques- tionnaire to computer coding sheets from which computer cards were made. The data were analyzed by computer using SPSS programs. Data analysis included March 1985 developing measures of central tendency and frequency distributions on an item- by-item basis. RESULTS Most participants in each survey indi- cated tha~ they used the library as a place to study. Other purposes were for recrea- tional reading, to listen to records and tapes, for class-related materials and to check out art prints. These data are listed in table 1. The second question examined the fre- quency with which residence hall libraries were used. Predictably, the respondents used the libraries more frequently than did the participants in the telephone sur- vey. Most often, the respondents to the users' survey indicated that they used the libraries ''several times a week,'' while ''a few times a month" was the most fre- quent response of the participants in the telephone survey. Responses to this item ranged from ''never'' to ''daily'' usage of the residence hall libraries and are in- cluded in table 2. The services provided by residence hall libraries was the next area of inquiry for this study. Most often, students used the libraries to read magazines, to study, and . to read newspapers. Least often, there- spondents to the users' survey used a tool rental service and checked out art prints from the library. These data are summa- rized in table 3. The telephone survey examined why in- frequent users (less than once a month or never) of the libraries did not use the resi- dence hall libraries more often. Most of- ten, they reported that they preferred to use another library on campus or that the residence hall library did not have the rna- TABLE 1 Purpose To study For recreational reading For records and tapes For class-related materials For art prints For other reasons USES OF HALLS OF RESIDENCE LIBRARIES Respondents to Telepnone Survey No. % 271 224 188 187 42 115 69.7 57.6 48.3 48.1 10.8 29.6 Respondents to Users' Survey No. % 458 397 390 375 233 144 92.5 80.7 76.5 74.6 44.7 27.1 Research Notes 175 TABLE2 FREQUENCY OF USE OF HALLS OF RESIDENCE LIBRARIES Frequency Daily Several times a week A few times a month Less than once a month Never No response *Does not equal 100% due to rounding. Respondents to Telephone Survey* No . % 18 102 259 183 156 17 2.4 13.9 35.2 24.9 21.2 2.3 Respondents to Users' Survey* No . % 64. 223 189 42 0 17 12.0 41.7 35.3 7.9 0.0 3.2 TABLE 3 USES OF HALLS OF RESIDENCE LIBRARIES BY RESPONDENTS TO USERS' SURVEY Service Read magazines Study Read newspapers Check out records Check out books for leisure reading Check out books related to class work Check out tapes Listen to tapes Check out reserve materials Check out equipment like typewriters and calculators Check out art prints RHA tool service rental *Nonrespondents to specific items are not included in this table. terials they needed. The library being too crowded or too noisy and not knowing about or not being able to find the library were reasons that were not listed fre- quently. These data are summarized in ta- ble4. CONCLUSIONS Telephone Survey Of the random sample of 735 students in the telephone survey, over half the sam- ple reported using the libraries frequently (a few times a month or more often). Just 22 percent of those surveyed indicated that they never use HRL. Over half the frequent users use HRL for recreational reading. Of the frequent us- ers, 92.5 percent use HRL as a place to study. If providing a place to study seems inconsistent with the objectives of HRL, it should be pointed out that while users do study in the libraries, they might at the same time use reference or reserve materi- Yes Response* % No % 382 75.2 126 24.8 307 60.9 197 39.1 281 54.0 239 46.0 208 40.5 305 59.5 191 37.2 322 62.8 187 35.4 341 64.6 127 24.2 398 75.8 67 12.8 456 87.2 55 10.5 470 89.5 54 10.3 469 89.7 53 10.1 471 89.9 27 5.1 498 94.9 als or listen to reserve tapes. They might also use newspapers or magazines during study breaks or as sources of information for class assignments. . Infrequent users do not use HRL more frequently because they prefer to use an- other library on campus. Just over half of the infrequent users reported that HRL did not have the materials they needed. Many of these students might be users of the main library or one of the fourteen more specialized branch libraries on cam- pus. About 25 percent of the infrequent users find the facilities uncomfortable. Students in the random sample are gen- erally aware of services provided by HRL whether they use the libraries frequently or infrequently. It cannot be construed, then, that some students are infrequent or nonusers due to a lack of knowledge of the libraries. Most of them simply prefer to use another library. The low percentage of use of art prints is ~--------------------------------------------------------------- --- ------· 176 College & Research Libraries March 1985 TABLE4 WHY INFREQUENT USERS DO NOT USE THE HALLS OF RESIDENCE LIBRARIES Reason Don't know about it Can't find it Library is too crowded Library is too noisy Facilities are uncomfortable Library does not have the materials I need Library is not open when I want to use it Prefer to use another library on campus Just don't like it Other reasons *Nomespondents to specific items are not included in this table . explained by the small number of prints available (approximately one hundred prints per library) and the circulation pe- riod (one semester). User Survey The 535 students who filled out ques- tionnaires in their center libraries were asked to report their perceptions of HRL purposes and services. These students in- dicated that more than half of them use their libraries a few times a week or daily. Most often, users of HRL reported that they perceived the purpose of the libraries is to provide places to study. A substantial majority also reported that the libraries should satisfy their needs for recreational reading, records and tapes, and class- related materials. Their reasons for using the libraries were not inconsistent with their percep- tions of the purposes. Respondents re- ported that they used the library most of- ten to read magazines and newspapers, and to study. They used the library very infrequently to check out reserve materi- als, equipment, art prints, or tool kits. In addition, a majority of users found HRL employees helpful and operating hours convenient. SUMMARY The data collected in this study indi- cated that students who live in the resi- dence centers have a wide range of library needs that extended from very general, recreational, leisure-reading, and listen- ing needs to basic reference and academic, curriculum-supporting needs. These needs Response* Yes % No % 19 5.5 326 94.5 9 2.6 335 97.4 29 8.5 313 91.5 40 11.7 303 88.3 85 24.9 257 75.1 171 50.6 167 49.4 75 21.9 267 78.1 281 83.1 57 16.9 98 28 .6 245 71.4 128 37.4 214 62.6 can be determined by looking at the ways in which frequent users actually use the Halls of Residence Libraries. They can also be determined by examining the purposes the respondents think the libraries should serve. Responses to questions asked in the two phases of the study (telephone survey and users ' survey) strongly suggested that a variety of needs are being met by HRL. The data also indicated that some of these needs are being met better than others. For example, while some students used HRL for class-related materials, many more students used the libraries for cur- rent periodicals and leisure reading. Rec- ords and tapes also were very popular and heavily used. In planning residence hall libraries, the data suggest that residence hall libraries can best be developed to meet the leisure reading needs of residential students. As a result, collections probably should be de- veloped along the lines of including maga- zines and newspapers, followed in impor- tance by class-related materials and records and tapes. Art prints, reserve ma- terials, and equipment are not used fre- quently by students and should have a lower priority than magazines and news- papers, records and tapes, and class- related materials. It seems reasonable to conclude that residence hall libraries should meet the general public library needs of students who live in residence, and that academic needs can be met by other libraries within the campus library system. Research Notes 177 REFERENCES 1. Kenneth Morgan, "The Harvard House Libraries," Library Journal56:538 Gune 13, 1931). 2. B. Lamar Johnson, "Dormitory Libraries at Stephens College," Library Quarterly 5:218 (Apr. 1935). 3. Leon Carnovsky, "The Dormitory Library: An Experiment in Stimulating Reading," Library Quar- terly 3:41 Gan. 1933). 4. Harvie Branscomb, Teaching with Books (Chicago: Association of American Colleges, American Li- brary Assn., 1940). 5. Onva K. Boshears and Gary E. Strong, "The Residence Hall Library," Wilson Library Bulletin 42:829 (Apr. 1968). 6. Edward B. Stanford, "Residence Hall Libraries and Their Educational Potential," College & Re- search Libraries 30:198 (May 1969). 7. Susan Andriette Ariew, "The Failure of the Open Access Residence Hall Library," College & Re- search Libraries 39:372 (September 1978). Chapter and Verse. 300 Years of American Fiction and Poetry As the United States emerged and grew, its heritage and development was reflected in its literature. In these two microfilm collections, Research Publications presents an invaluable resource for scholars of American history and culture. American Fiction, 1774 to 1910 The country dealt with its potential, changed, and faced difficulties. This collection follows the development of an ever-changing culture through the works of both well-known and lesser-known writers . Novels, short stories, tales, sketches, and allegories are some of the works included in this 10,800 title, 1,645 reel collection. • Now available for acquisition on standing order. • 36 V2 subscription units. • Standing order unit price-$1,970 (15% off the individual unit price) American Poetry, 1609 to 1870 Approximately9,600 titles thoroughly sample the poetry of the period on 425 reels. They also reflect the attitudes and sentiments of the times through works by obscure as well as major poets and poetic works of prose authors. • Now available for acquisition on standing order. • 11 subscription units. • Standing order unit price- $2,275 (15% off the individual unit price) To place an order or for more information, call or write: Research Publications ~ For Europe, Africa&: Asia: 12 Lunar Drive/Drawer AB Research Publications Ltd. Woodbridge, CT 06525 P.O. Box 45 (203) 397-2600 Reading, RGl 8HF England research publications -----------------------------~ Two for the show. __ I wish to place an order. Please contact me. Please forward more information on __ American Fiction, 1774 to 1910. __ American Poetry, 1609 to 1870. Name ____________________________________________ _ Title----------------------- Institution ---------------------------------'--------- Address ____________________ ___ City State Zip _____ _ Phone ___________________________________________ _ ~----------------------------~