The impact of library resources on academic performance: The case of Eritea Institute of Technology Library

In the information and technology age where access to information is no more limited to the physical boundaries of the libraries, libraries all over the world currently face the challenge of demonstrating and quantifying their value to their students, funders and to all their stakeholders. In this environment of information assessment and evaluation, the role of the academic library has begun to change with the advent of online catalogs, CD-ROMs, online databases, other electronic resources, new methods of document delivery, and access to information. Libraries are now in a state where their value is no more taken for granted, thus, academic libraries like any other university departments must demonstrate empirically that library usage does contribute to student academic performance and, thereby, to the university's effectiveness. This research aimed to demonstrate the value that the Eritrea Institute of Technology Library (EIT Library) brings to students' learning and outcomes and, thereby, to the institutions learning, teaching and research goals. This study is a survey-based study correlating the usage of library resources and academic performance of students. In this study, descriptive statistics involving frequency counts, tables and percentages presented in charts were used for the analysis of data. Using chi-square tests of independence, the study identifies multiple significant correlations, both positive and negative, between student use of the library and student outcomes as measured by average grade point (GPA). Taking into consideration that there is possibility to have some variables that correlate with both student use of library resources and students' outcomes, in this research we have also conducted several correlation tests to avoid any biased estimation on the impact of library resources. For a closer look at the student's interaction with the library resources and the library itself as a place, the study also examined whether the students perceived the library and its resources to be valuable and satisfying given the state of its environment. The research successfully demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between library resource use and students' outcomes measured by average grade point (GPA) of the students.