ASSESSING STUDENTS LIBRARY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE - THE LIBRARY RESEARCH STRATEGIES QUESTIONNAIRE

3 studies were conducted to develop a questionnaire on strategies of library research which showed demonstrable psychometric qualities such as validity and reliability, to aid in assessing the effectiveness of bibliographic instruction of psychology students. In Study 1, 31 undergraduate students were interviewed about their use of the library and the strategies they use when confronted with a paper-writing assignment. In Study 2, the qualitative responses from Study 1 were used to develop a pool of multiple-choice items for testing, to examine whether a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument could be created. 64 students were tested. Using the results from Study 2, Study 3 refined the original questionnaire; reliability measures and factor analysis based on responses of 246 students were used to confirm 4 factors composing the Library Research Strategies Questionnaire, namely, person-specific skills, library-specific skills, paper-specific skills, and reference-specific skills.