International and Domestic Students' Perception of Library Personnel and Resources

SUMMARY

International students represent an increasingly important group in American higher education. Multiculturalism is valued, and institutions seek to attract a more diverse student and faculty population. Certainly this is important to university libraries as they seek to enhance the educational opportunities and experiences of all students. This manuscript employs a large sample of domestic (i.e., non-international) students and a large sample of international students to examine the research question: Does the country of origin influence the student's perception of library personnel, or their utilization of library resources? Statistical analyses reveal that the two student groups do differ along several dimensions, but are quite similar in other regards. Regression analysis is employed to predict when each group is more likely to seek help when having trouble in the library, and to predict the student's perception of helpful and polite library personnel. Analysis of variance reveals differences within the groups