The use of academic libraries in turbulent times: Student library behaviour and academic performance at the University of Cape Town

Purpose: This paper will explore how an innovation in the University Management Information System, the construction of a Data Warehouse, was leveraged to incorporate library data by an initially sceptical and grudging... [ view full abstract ]

Purpose:

This paper will explore how an innovation in the University Management Information System, the construction of a Data Warehouse, was leveraged to incorporate library data by an initially sceptical and grudging strategic management team. The rationale for our request had been that we would then be able to extract evidence of correlations between library use and student achievement – thus far an almost impossible task because the different systems do not speak to each other. The diverse nature of the student body at the University of Cape Town (UCT) made this new instrument particularly useful, as it promised to enable us to isolate records by student demographic characteristics and to compare the library behaviour of different groups. This kind of information is of particular interest to the institution which is at present dealing with crises which have been precipitated by nationwide student protests, popularly summarised in the call for “#FeesMustFall” among students who suffer from the effects of poverty and exclusion in higher education.

Approach:

We approach the data extracted from the Data Warehouse from the comparative demographic perspectives of students’ degrees of disadvantage in an effort to uncover any hitherto hidden patterns of library use.

Findings:

Preliminary findings show that it is possible to map the use of the library as expressed by footfall, database use and loans, against students’ pass rates and their collective grade point averages, indicating that increased library use correlates positively with better academic performance. In the paper we’ll also comment on some of the initial correlations between student library behaviour before, during and after the nationwide disruptions that destabilized universities and threatened their survival at the end of 2016 just before the final examination period. We shall interrogate the effects that library closures (under threat of damage) at a critical time in the academic year might have had on library use and also on student performance.

Conclusions:

Students on financial aid, our indicator of disadvantage, come from schools and environments where access to information technology and libraries is very limited, with the result that library habits are either poorly established or not established at all. At the University of Cape Town, considerable support is in place for students to encourage the development of library habits, for example assistance in information commons venues and in the provision of online training tools. Initial analysis of available data is indicating that students who have acquired library habits regardless of unfavourable financial circumstances do not exhibit behaviour and academic outcomes markedly different from that of their more privileged peers.

Originality and value:

Combining library data with data from the University Data Warehouse is a new approach in South Africa. It is an approach that is of value both to the library and the institution at large and has brought meaningful insights into the role the academic library might be seen to play in promoting student academic achievement.