Use of Bostick's Library Anxiety Scale on undergraduate biological sciences students of Kuwait University

A modified version of the Library Anxiety Scale (LAS) consisting of 34 statements, originally developed by Bostick in 1992 [Bostick, S. L. (1992). The development and validation of the Library Anxiety Scale. PhD dissertation, Wayne State University] using American students, was administered to 145 undergraduate biological sciences students in Kuwait to test its suitability for a culturally different population. Factor analysis was used to determine the appropriate number of factors and statement groupings in each of these factors. It was found that the factor groupings of the present study vary considerably from those of Bostick's suggesting that the LAS, in its present form was designed using American students and is not suitable for a different cultural group. The findings of this study suggest that gender and school library use do not have any significant relationship with library anxiety in the Kuwaiti population. The language of instruction in school and school library use does affect one of the four factors of library anxiety. More research on diverse populations is needed to test the suitability of the LAS further. The study also proposes a quantitative measure for determining the levels of library anxiety in terms of no anxiety, low anxiety, mild anxiety, moderate anxiety, and severe anxiety. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.