Academic Libraries and High-Impact Practices for Student Retention: Library Deans’ Perspectives

Abstract

Numerous studies on retention have highlighted the role of student engagement in influencing students’ withdrawal decisions. This study seeks to address how academic libraries affect student retention by examining the perception of academic library deans or directors on the alignment between library services and resources with ten nationally validated high-impact practices (HIPs). This study used a survey distributed to the academic library deans and directors of public master’s universities in the United States. A positive correlation was found between library instruction, library facilities, and library collections with each of the HIPs.