Abstract

An academic library is one of the largest information sources for international students to obtain learning resources, which have a great impact on their studies. However, most academic libraries currently have not provided adequate multilingual services except English, which makes it difficult for international students whose mother language is not English to perform academic work. Accordingly, the present study defines the customized services for international students as the ones that have been supported in ltiple languages among academic library services and aims to examine their effect on user satisfaction in academic libraries. Furthermore, the study has compared international students’ satisfaction with academic libraries - one that provides appropriate customized services with the other that does not. The surveys have been conducted with Chinese international students in two different universities and a total of 138 responses were analyzed. The study found that the customized services for the international students influenced their satisfaction with library use. In particular, multilingual services had positive effects on satisfaction with services such as brochures/signs, access to and use of resources through the homepage, and user instruction. The findings of the study suggest practical insights on how academic libraries provide effective services for supporting international students’ academic tasks.