International business students: A study on their use of electronic library services

This study seeks to explore and report international business students’ perceptions and expectations of electronic library services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A total of 143 international business students on campus volunteered to fill out a survey. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics such as t-tests and correlation. A significant portion of international business students has no prior experience with electronic library services in their home countries. Moreover, about a half of international business students go to libraries other than the Business and Economics Library, partly because they provide better environment for study. Although electronic resources are available without the constraint of location, providing reference services for those who do not use the Business and Economics Library becomes a challenge. Virtual reference is an excellent tool, but most international business students do not see it as an important library service. Based on the results, implications for information literacy and virtual reference service are discussed.