What about the books? Valuing students’ past library experiences

Abstract

In 2019, the Utah State University Libraries’ first-year student orientation took an unexpected blow when it was made optional in the new student orientation program after being required for more than a decade. We want to make sure that students know about the resources available to them through their library at the beginning of their college careers, and this change felt devastating.

In a strong push to prove our worth and gain some much-needed validation, we held focus groups with our first-year students to hear what they thought of their library and how the library orientation impacted them. Our secret motive was to reinstate the library workshop as a requirement for all first-year students. After doing our IRB diligence, we successfully recruited 48 students to participate and held four focus groups, two sessions with library orientation participants and two with nonparticipants.