What is Library Anxiety?

What is Library Anxiety?

The basics

Library anxiety is feelings of discomfort and stress in a library environment. Constance A. Mellon first identified and named library anxiety in 1986. In her groundbreaking study, Mellon found that 75-85% of students describe their first experience in an academic library in terms of anxiety and fear. In the decades since Mellon first identified library anxiety, researchers have worked to better understand the antecedents, symptoms, and implications of library anxiety.

Studies have focused on the needs of different populations of students, changing understanding of student learning styles and pedagogical practices, and how the cycle of library anxiety can be disrupted through different types of interventions.

What is important to understand about library anxiety as opposed to other forms of academic and general anxiety is that it can affect anyone at any time. Regardless of how familiar they are with libraries or the activities that take place within libraries.

Common antecedents and lasting effects of library anxiety

As researchers have learned more about library anxiety, certain themes have emerged related to its common triggers and lasting effects on student success. Jaio and Onwuegbuzie, two of the leading researchers in the study of library anxiety, identified three antecedents of library anxiety: dispositional, situational, and environmental (1997).

• Dispositional antecedents relate to the internal factor’s individuals face. For example, self-esteem, proclivity towards procrastination, or perfectionist tendencies.

• Situational antecedents relate to the immediate environment both physically and with regard to the general nature of libraries.

• Environmental antecedents relate to an individual’s past experiences and demographics. 

Students’ experiences of library anxiety have been found to create feelings of shame and the need to conceal their discomfort (Cleveland, 2004; Jensen, 2005; McAfee, 2018; Mellon, 1986). The negative nature of experiences of library anxiety in turn lead to increased behaviors of procrastination and a reduction of the amount of time students are willing to spend in academic library spaces, which in turn negatively impacts students’ academic success (Cleveland, 2004; Jensen, 2005; McAfee, 2018; McPherson, 2015). Although the severity of students’ experiences of library anxiety are varied, the effects of those experiences tend to build upon each other. Similar to a snowball rolling down hill, what begins as a single relatively small experience can quickly become an overwhelming obstacle. 

Library Anxiety and Covid-19

New and different triggers

Library anxiety is a situation specific form of anxiety. This means that any person can experience library anxiety at any time in their use of the library, and even someone who has not previously experienced library anxiety or feels very comfortable in a library setting may be triggered by change.

Changes made to ensure the health and safety of college and university students, faculty, and staff have dramatically changed the ways that academic library’s function. The initial shift in educational modalities from on-campus to online or hybrid formats in response to the pandemic meant that academic library’s physical locations were closed. As the mode of instruction continues to shift in response to the pandemic, changes have been made to building occupancy policies, the availability of print resources, and access to technology. These changes also mean that the possible triggers of library anxiety are evolving, and new triggers are developing in response to the new rules and regulations on campus. For example, some of the physically based situational antecedents have been removed because some physical library spaces are not open, but not all. Another situational antecedent, a lack of knowledge about the general nature of libraries or digital library resources may be a more commonly experienced trigger than before the pandemic.

At the University of Alabama Libraries, a new building occupancy policy requires students to reserve a seat ahead of time. Using an online reservation system, students sign up to use a specific seat for a set amount of time. While this helps to ensure that social distancing is maintained, the anxiety of having to plan when you will use the library and for how long is actually a deterrent for many students who see the extra step as just another way to be tripped up by their lack of knowledge. The time limits placed on reservations also add pressure to complete work quickly and similarly act as a deterrent to students’ comfort using academic library spaces (Nieves-Whitmore, 2021).

Another example of the ways students are experiencing library anxiety in relation to the pandemic can be found in the types of questions being asked during virtual reference interviews (Radford et al., 2021). Radford et al. found that in the early days of the pandemic many of the question’s that librarians were fielding were related to accruing fines for overdue materials. However, as the pandemic has continued, questions have shown that anxieties are more “centered on the inability to access print resources, especially book reserves, and lack of experience with online learning platforms” (Radford et al., 2021, p. 107).