Perceptions of U.S. Academic Library Services of First-year Graduate Students from Taiwan—A Photo-elicitation Study

In this study investigating international students’ perceptions of U.S. academic libraries, a qualitative method, photo-elicitation, is for the first time used to study how previous library experiences influence international students’ current perceptions of U.S. academic libraries. This study focuses on four dimensions of library service including access to information, affect of service, library as place, and personal control; these four dimensions are adapted from the LibQUAL+?, a web-based survey tool used among academic libraries for measuring users’ perceptions of library services. Five first-year graduate students from Taiwan were interviewed about how they perceived the library services of Center for Instructional Materials and Computing (CIMC), an academic library serving the students and faculty of School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The findings of this study confirm the findings of previous studies both on international students’ in U.S. academic libraries and on photo-elicitation studies, and add empirical examples and insights for the claims in the limited body of research on international students in U.S. academic libraries.