HO TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

ELECTRICAL ELECTRONIC TECHNICIAN 1

Engineering Students and the Academic Library

College Students from different fields of study have distinct information needs and use the
library differently. In 2002, Whitmire applied the Biglan typology of academic disciplines to
a study of the effect of disciplinary differences on academic library use and information
seeking behaviour.

The author found that students in fields classified as hard (as opposed to solve), applied
(opposed to pure), and non-life (as opposed to life), such as engineering, engaged
information seeking behaviour least frequently. In 2008, Bridges reported that students
from the engineering college used the virtual library (i.e. self reported used of online library
resources and /or the library website from a remote location) less than students from the
liberal art college.

However, the author didi not find the support the hypothesis that the engineering students
used the physical library less often than others. Similarly, Nackerudetal (2013) reported
that only 47% of undergraduate student in college of engineering use digital library
resources such as database and online journals, compared with 74% of students in the
college of education and human development and 65% of undergraduate student overall.

In United Kingdom based study, Collins and Stone (2014) found that computing and
engineering use the library significantly less than the references group of social science
students in terms of items borrowed, visits to the library, hours logged into library
computers, pdf downloads and e-resources accessed. The author noted that computing
and engineering students were generally similar in terms of library used, although
engineering students need more likely to use the physical library and less likely to
download pdfs compared to computing students.

In contrast, Soria (2013) found that undergraduate who aspired to careers in engineering
and programming and considered libraries and research to be significantly more important
compared with students in other disciplines. Overall, this study provided limited evidence
in support of the hypothesis that engagement with the academic library builds academic
students self-efficacy. However, library engagement may yet been shown to relate to other
keys outcomes in engineering education (eg. Engineering identity, research self-efficacy,
post-graduation aspirations) using the novel instruments developed in the contest of the
present work to measure the engineering library experiences. Based on my findings, i
have also make practical recommendations for ways that the library can support three
distinct groups of engineering students: international students, students who participates in
co-curricular activities and students library workers.

References and citations

● Bridges, L.M. (2018). Who is not using the library? A comparison of undergraduate
academic discipline and library use. Portal: libraries and the academy.
● Soria, K.M (2013). Factors predicting the importance of libraries and research
activities for undergraduates. The Journal of Academic Librarianship.
● Nackerud, S. (2013). Analyzing demographics: accessing library use across the
institutions
● Collins, E. And Stone, G. (2014). Understanding patterns of library used among
undergraduate students from different disciplines. Evidence Based Library and
Information Practices