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abstract: This article presents a case study of an urban academic library's attempt to identify factors that influence the perceptions of students of color concerning the library as a welcoming space. The goal of this study is to determine if there are qualitative divergent factors along racial lines concerning how students use this library. The research is grounded in the theory of symbolic interactionism and Critical Race Theory. The authors then used these theories to focus on three themes that emerged reflecting racial differences among library users. This project adds to the limited scholarly research concerning the influence of the library on the experiences and the retention and success rates of students of color.
Introduction
Librarianship, in all settings (public, academic, and special libraries), has a history of examining what factors, tangible and intangible, shape a library. As professionals, we have conducted numerous observational, qualitative, and quantitative studies to determine what factors library personnel consider relevant to creating and maintaining a library that is suitable for our users. In recent years, there has been a shift toward examining what factors our users perceive as necessary in order for a library to be a place suitable for their needs. This article presents research that focuses on how students, particularly students of color, use the Portland State University Library and how they feel about its services and the library as place.
While the library was undergoing a LibQUAL+ survey, the authors conducted this qualitative study after determining that LibQUAL+ did not collect ethnic or racial demographic data in the academic setting. This lack of data from LibQUAL+ prevents analysis of open-ended questions along ethnic or racial lines to determine if certain services, factors, or issues have a greater impact on certain segments of our user population. Though our exploratory survey contained closed-ended questions, the qualitative data found in the open-ended segments will be the focus of our analysis.
Several themes emerged from our convenience sampling concerning users' experiences within the library. Three themes that emerged as different along racial lines were: what parts of the library students utilize and how often; the familiarity of students with doing library research and utilizing the reference services; and, lastly, what issues students have concerning safety and the sense of...