Library anxiety and characteristic strengths and weaknesses of graduate students’ study habits

This study was conducted to identify graduate students’ predominant study habit strengths and weaknesses as well as to examine empirically the relationship between specific study habits and library anxiety. Participants were 133 graduate students in the field of education at a university in the southeast of the USA. These individuals were administered the study habits inventory (SHI) and the library anxiety scale (LAS). Findings revealed that students’ responses to 62.9 per cent of the 63 study habit statements in the SHI were indicative of appropriate study habits. Study habit weaknesses were identified in the areas of note-taking and reading skills. An all possible subsets multiple regression analysis led to the identification of eight specific study behaviours that predicted levels of library anxiety. These study habits explained 45.8 per cent of the variance in library anxiety, which, using Cohen's criteria, represents a large effect size. Implications for library anxiety reduction as a study habits intervention are discussed.