Assessment Update – Fall 2018

The Pius/Medical Center Assessment Committee is interested in exploring the correlation between library usage, GPA and ultimately, retention.  Through the card swiping at the entrances, the library is collecting data from students who visit Pius Library between 9 pm and 7:30 am during Spring and Fall semesters, 2018.  With this data, the committee hopes to show a correlation between student card swipes and academic success indicated by grade data and retention.

These overnight hours were selected because of the two entrances to Pius Library; the south door has card swiping required during all the open hours, while the East entrance only requires card swiping from 9 pm until 7:30 am. Therefore, the card swipe information from both entrances is important to capture all the participants.  Informal observations of students who use the library at night indicate that they are mainly engaged in study.

Two other university offices will be critical in this study.  The Registrar maintains confidential student information including major, GPA, class at SLU, gender, and part-time or full-time status.  With this data, and with the help of Patrick Kelly, Senior Research Analyst at the University Office of Institutional Research, the committee can correlate various factors to help prove that library use impacts student success

This preliminary collection of student card-swipe data is only an exploratory first step in our efforts to determine whether library use influences GPA and retention.  Further study and analysis will be conducted.

Patricia L. Gregory, Professor
Assistant Dean for Library Assessment