Recently I found some articles about university students being anxious when using a library. There is a Wikipedia page on that subject. Such anxiety obviously could interfere with speechwriting and other research.
I never had that problem. Perhaps it was because as a child of five I already had been introduced to the children’s room at the main Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh. I blogged about it in a post on April 7, 2021 titled This is National Library Week and today is National Bookmobile Day.
There is an article by Constance A. Mellon at College & Research Libraries for 1986 (Volume 47, Number 2 pages 160 to 165) titled Library Anxiety: A Grounded Theory and Its Development. When she asked six thousand U. S. students, between 75% and 85% described their initial response to the library in terms of fear or anxiety. A more recent article by Gabriel X. D. Tan et al. in the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports for 2023 titled Prevalence of anxiety in college and university students: An umbrella review found a range from 7.4% to 55% with a median of 32%.
Some university libraries have web pages about overcoming anxiety. For example, Jennifer Lau-Bond at Harper College has one titled Library Anxiety Overview. And Erica Nicol at Washington State University has a second titled Library Anxiety – How to Beat It. And St. Catherine University – Library and Archives has a third titled Don’t Panic! Using the Library for Academic Success: Home.
Another recent article by Anthony Aycock in Information Today on May 7, 2024 is titled Mental Health Awareness Month: What is Library Anxiety?
The cartoon of a stern librarian was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.
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