Library anxiety, library use and academic performance of undergraduate students in Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of library anxiety, which has received relatively little research attention in Pakistan, and its relationship with library use, academic performance (grade point average), gender and academic discipline among the undergraduate students.

Data were collected using a questionnaire from 725 fourth year undergraduate students of three different disciplines from three universities. The participation was voluntary. The data were processed using SPSS version 20.

A majority of the respondents (72.1 per cent) experienced a mild library anxiety. The factors: user education and user knowledge were the greatest sources of library anxiety. Findings revealed differences in library anxiety on the basis of gender and academic discipline. Library anxiety and academic performance had a significant negative relationship with each other.

This is the first study in Pakistan that addressed library anxiety and its relationship with library use, academic discipline and academic performance using a large group (N = 725) of undergraduate students.