The academic library’s contribution to student success: Library instruction and GPA

Abstract

Preliminary data from this paper were presented as a poster session at the annual meeting of the Academic Libraries of Indiana in Greencastle, Indiana on May 6, 2016 and also in a conference session at the joint conference of Georgia COMO and the Southeastern Library Association in Athens, Georgia on October 6, 2016. This study examines the relationship between library instruction and graduating students’ four-year cumulative grade point averages for the classes of 2012-2015. After normalizing the GPAs by departments to account for differences in departmental grading, a two-tailed t-test indicated a statistically significant increase in GPA among graduating students who were enrolled in classes in which at least one library instruction session was held (n=1,265) over students who were enrolled in no classes with library instruction (n=115). Librarians are using the results to demonstrate the relationship between the library and student success, and to promote library instruction on campus.