Want to Improve Student Retention? Enlist Some Librarians……..According to Study

Want to Improve Student Retention? Enlist Some Librarians……..According to Study

Study finds that academic library instruction helps keep undergraduates in school

Bowles-Terry’s initial findings linking university libraries and librarians directly to student retention are a compelling addition to the story of impact these spaces and professionals have on student success.

The study identified three major findings:

• Retention rates for students who participated in library instruction courses were significantly higher than for those students who did not attend a library instruction class.
• First-year students who took classes that included information literacy instruction had higher grade point averages than students whose courses did not.
• Students who participated in library instruction successfully completed 1.8 more credit hours per year than students who did not.

“As librarians, we feel good about helping individual students, and there was a lot of qualitative data detailing how library instruction helps students develop literacy skills, but now we have some data that supports what we are doing is having a broad impact on students,” Bowles-Terry said. “The most exciting thing we’ve noted in this research is that library instruction is playing such an important role in helping students graduate.”

Full Info | https://www.unlv.edu/news/article/want-improve-student-retention-enlist-some-librarians