Library Anxiety: A Grounded Theory and Its Development

A grounded theory of library anxiety was constructed from personal writing collected in beginning composition courses over a two-year period and found that students generally feel that their own library-use skills are inadequate while the skills of other students are adequate.

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the feelings of students about using the library for research. Personal writing, collected in beginning composition courses over a two-year period, was analyzed for recurrent themes. It was found that 75 to 85 percent of the students in these courses described their initial response to library research in terms of fear. Three concepts emerged from these descriptions: (1) students generally feel that their own library-use skills are inadequate while the skills of other students are adequate, (2) the inadequacy is shameful and should be hidden, and (3) the inadequacy would be revealed by asking questions. A grounded theory of library anxiety was constructed from these data.