Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Student-Parents And Academic Libraries, Rachel E. Scott, Brannen Varner

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

[In the absence of an abstract, the introductory paragraph is provided.] At many colleges and universities, student-parents—students with one or more dependent children—are a growing population. Research in higher education has long demonstrated that student-parents face obstacles to completing degrees and participating in college experiences. Academic librarians, however, have done little work to study what student-parents uniquely need to succeed academically, though, several academic libraries now offer family-friendly study spaces. As mothers and former student-parents ourselves, we witnessed students express self-consciousness or evince discomfort when their children accompanied them in our library. We identified the need to ask—and listen …