Understanding library-anxious graduate students

Research suggests that learning preference is an antecedent of statistics anxiety and research anxiety experienced by graduate students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between learning preferences and the following antecedents of library anxiety: “barriers with staff”, “affective barriers”, “comfort with the library”, “knowledge of the library”, and “mechanical barriers” among graduate students. Participants were 203 graduate students enrolled in a research methodology course. A series of setwise regression analyses revealed that the following 13 learning environmental preferences were related to one or more of these antecedents: noise preference, persistence orientation, responsibility, structure, peer orientation, authority orientation, multiple perceptual orientation, visual orientation, tactile orientation, kinesthetic orientation, morning preference, afternoon preference, and mobility preference. The implications of these findings are discussed.