The effectiveness of bibliographic instruction on reducing library anxiety in GED students at a community college

This study explored the effects of two treatments in reducing anxiety among GED students at a community college. Descriptive statistics provided information about the characteristics of GED students at one community college in South Texas. ANOVAs and t-tests were run to test the hypotheses concerning the effectiveness of bibliographic instruction in reducing library anxiety in three groups. Treatments consisted of a class of bibliographic instruction by the librarian for group 1; a class period spent using the library with their GED instructor without formal library instruction for group 2; and no official exposure to the library for the control group 3. Sharon Bostick's (1992) Library Anxiety Scale served as the instrument of measurement, with the change scores between pretest and posttest used as the dependent variable.; The analysis of the data revealed, as anticipated, no significant difference among the groups on the pretest. However, the change scores showed a significant decrease in library anxiety only in group 2, which went to the library but received no bibliographic instruction. Group 1 had a decrease in anxiety, but not at a significant level. Group 3 had no significant change.; The study failed to support the effectiveness of bibliographic instruction for reducing library anxiety in GED students at a community college. It was concluded that other teaching methods might achieve better results, especially team-teaching with the GED instructor. Further research was recommended to provide an instrument that more effectively measures feelings of library anxiety. Also suggested were studies on bibliographic instruction for elderly or non-English speaking GED students and studies on information literacy for GED students.