Imagine it’s August again. The once empty parking lots are filling up with bright-eyed teens fresh from summer vacation. Everywhere you turn, there are events for first-year students from tabling to tours. Imagine it is your first semester back to school as well. You feel the same anxious feelings about finding your classes and where to print your ID. The only difference is that you are a 40-year-old army veteran with a family of four. Perhaps you are a 23-year-old first generation student who has just snagged your associate’s degree from the neighboring community college. Non-traditional and transfer students can be found here at Texas State University and on college campuses across the country. With approximately 8,000 transfer students enrolled at TXST in Fall 2024, it is imperative that this vulnerable demographic of students not be left behind.
Because of this, I began the work of conducting a needs assessment to learn of the specific needs of transfer students at Texas State University. As the first-year experience (FYE) librarian, I noticed that the bulk of my outreach was catered to the traditional first-year student experience. Attempts at reaching transfer students in the same way were not effective. After reviewing literature on the successful needs assessments of librarians at other schools, I drafted and disseminated a 12-question survey to the currently enrolled transfer students.
This survey gave me insight into how often transfer students visited the library, whether they actively used library materials/resources, and if they had participated in any library events. As the FYE librarian, I find it important to keep a pulse on what matters to incoming students. With the promise of a chance to win a brand-new 30 oz. Stanley cup, I was able to obtain over 1,000 respondents to my survey. One thing that surprised me from the survey results was how many participants were graduating seniors. When I think of the term “transfer student” I think of sophomores. I also found that these students, despite having been at TXST for over two years, had not participated in at least any library event in their time here. I plan to use this as well as library programming suggestions to create programming that non-traditional students find useful and important.
I also received positive feedback from transfer and non-traditional students who expressed gratitude for being considered and prioritized. Since I was unable to locate any prior library research on the population of Texas State University’s non-traditional and transfer student population, I look forward to using this data to guide my practice and outreach going forward. As transfer student enrollment continues to grow, I hope that all instruction librarians can use the results of my survey to prioritize providing quality service to all first-year students.
This article was contributed by First Year Experience Librarian Taylor Glover.