Abstract
Purpose – The paper analyses students’ use of public libraries for study purposes and discusses the
public library as a substitute or a complement for educational or academic libraries. The paper also
investigates which segments of students rely heavily on public libraries as services for study
purposes.
Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a comprehensive survey of Danish
students from both universities and other higher institutions of education. The data collection was
carried out by an online survey and the sample consists of students from all over the country covering
a multitude of different institutions and subject areas.
Findings – It is evident from the research that students do not bypass the physical library and it is
also evident that the use of physical libraries and digital resources complement each other. The place
of Google in the students’ information behaviour is prominent and positively correlated to use of
traditional library resources. Nearly 60 per cent of all students use the local public library for study
purposes. A small group consisting of 7 per cent of the students uses the public library as their only
library for study purposes. One of the more striking findings is that the service level of public libraries
in relation to study topics appears to be very uneven, which means that different groups of students
have very varied probabilities of success using the public library. The data also indicates that students
tend to look at libraries as a whole and do not make clear distinctions between different types of
libraries, expecting the whole system to be seamless. The paper also relates the findings to the general
body of literature on students’ information seeking behaviour.
Research limitations/implications – The research raises questions concerning the detailed
behaviour of students’ information behaviour, for example, how they combine formalised resources
with more general resources. The paper also indicates that it is probably counter-productive to
evaluate students as one group. Different segments of students have very different and varied
information behaviour patterns depending on study topic, study year, psychological dispositions and
other demographic factors.
Practical implications – The paper raises important managerial questions and concerns in relation
to both the mission of public libraries and the service level given to different segments of students.
Originality/value – The research supports existing international research on students’ information
behaviour. The research is based on a comprehensive and nation-wide sample and it emphasises
students’ information behaviour in relation to several important demographic factors, and it also
asserts that it is important to investigate further the differing modes of behaviour. The paper points to
the interplay between formalised information resources and search engines.
Keywords Students, Higher education, Information retrieval, Public libraries, Denmark
Paper type Research paper