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Library anxiety has been identified as one of the academic related anxieties which can affect college students. The Library-Anxiety-Expectation Model indicated innate characteristics of students and environmental variables such as gender, race, and year of study, as possible antecedents of library anxiety. This means that the arousal of library anxiety can be influenced by students' other forms of inherent anxieties. The objective of this paper is therefore to investigate the level of academic related anxieties among final year undergraduates and the relationships among the dimensions of the anxieties. The scope of this study focuses on three anxieties; library anxiety, English language anxiety and communication anxiety. Three sets of survey instruments were used; Library Anxiety Scale (LAS), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), and Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24). All instruments were translated into the Malay language and statements with the word 'foreign language' in FLCAS were changed to 'English language'. The findings showed that final year students in this study experience only a moderate level of all three academic related anxieties. It was found that all four dimensions of communication anxiety -- formal, interpersonal conversations, group discussion, and public speaking -- correlated with at least one or more of the five dimensions of library anxiety -- barriers with staff, library services barriers, library resources barriers, affective barriers, and internet services barriers. All three dimensions of language anxiety -- speaking anxiety, classroom anxiety, and learner anxiety -- correlated with at least one or more of library anxiety dimensions. Although the correlations were moderate, the study nevertheless provided empirical evidence that the dimensions of communication and language anxieties have relationship with the dimensions of library anxiety. Acknowledgment of the prevalence of these anxieties among students can help libraries and librarians to make learning in the library less stressful by focusing more on students and their problems instead of the library and its environment only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempted to assess the impact of five (5) work related variables (role conflict, role clarity, job autonomy, job performance feedback and job involvement) on organizational commitment and job satisfaction among Malaysian university librarians. The study sought to address the following research questions: (a) do work related variables such as role conflict, role clarity, job autonomy, job performance feedback and job involvement correlate significantly as well as significantly predict the variation in organizational commitment and job satisfaction among university librarians in Malaysia; and (b) does this set of five (5) work related variables have a greater/lesser impact on organizational commitment as compared to job satisfaction or vice versa. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was employed and questionnaires were distributed to 222 respondents comprising mainly of professionally trained library employees. A response rate of 63% was achieved resulting in 139 usable questionnaires that were returned. The findings of this study were based on the analysis of 139 usable questionnaires that were returned. The findings revealed that of the five (5) work related variables that were employed, all were found to be correlates of organizational commitment. Of these five correlates however, only three (3) were found to have statistically significant predictive relationship with organizational commitment: role clarity, job autonomy and job involvement Collectively these three (3) predictors account for 31.8% of the variance in organizational commitment. Of the five (5) work related variables that were employed to examine their relationship with job satisfaction, only four were found to correlate significantly with job satisfaction: role conflict, role clarity, job autonomy and job performance feedback. Of these 4 work correlates, only two (2) were found to significantly predict the variation in job satisfaction. Collectively these two variables (role conflict and role clarity) account for 16.3% of the variance in job satisfaction. Hence, the impact of work related variables was greater for organizational commitment (31.8% of the variance) than for job satisfaction (16.3% of the variance). Only role clarity was found to be a significant correlate as well as a significant predictor of organizational commitment as well as job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharon L Bostick's (1992) Library Anxiety Scale has been widely used to assess library anxiety among library users. Little psychometric effort was undertaken to assess the scale's psychometric properties in an environment where English is not the native language of the library users. This study was an attempt to cross-culturally validate the scale in a Malaysian university library environment where the population's native language is not English. A 49-item modified version of Bostick's (1992) Library Anxiety Scale was tested among 367 students drawn randomly from a population of 8,432 undergraduate students. The instruments were administered during classroom hours using a self-reported questionnaire. An 84% return rate was achieved in which the questionnaires that were returned were found to be usable. The findings revealed that a 5-factor solution was found which corresponded to the five factors as found by Bostick's (1992) pioneering psychometric effort on library anxiety. The factor "barriers with staff" explained the greatest proportion of variance in the library anxiety construct which is consistent with previous studies on library anxiety. The overall scale as well as each of the five sub-scales was submitted to an internal reliability assessment using Cronbach's internal reliability coefficient alpha. With the exception of the modified sub-scale "comfort with library technology" all the four sub-scales as well as the overall scale were found to have satisfied the 0.70 criteria as recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). As such the findings were found to be consistent with previous studies that found the scale to be valid as well as internally reliable. More psychometric efforts are needed before the scale can be said to be a useful instrument in assessing library anxiety among Malaysian university library users. A Malay version of Bostick's (1992) scale would have to be tested before any sound conclusions can be made about the scale's psychometric soundness and stability in an environment where English is not the native language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]