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The purpose of this paper is to examine the technology confidence, skills, and post-skills-test emotions in traditional (younger than 24 years old) and non-traditional (24 and older) first-year college students at three undergraduate campuses in the Northeastern USA.

Totally, 39 college freshmen from three college campuses were recruited for the study. An online test environment and screen recording software were used to measure student proficiency in using PDFs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Gmail, and Windows. Data were collected in September 2013.

The majority of the students struggled with at least one facet of academic software. Traditional students were more confident than non-traditional students in their technology skills, but they did not score any higher on the skills test. Students who placed at the high end and low end of the test results curve most accurately assessed their technology skills, and their post-test feelings were the most appropriate in light of their test results. A large percentage of the traditional aged students were overconfident about their skills and self-identified as “happy” or “wonderful” even after performing poorly on the test.

Having concrete data about student technology skills, rather than anecdotal data from Reference Desk interactions, can help librarians design improved instruction and tutorials that target areas of student technology weakness. In addition, there have been no studies that examine student immediate emotional response to test performance in this type of testing environment.

The purpose of this paper is to report on how researchers at Penn State University used video screen capture technology to learn more about student usage of the library's databases.

The process of identifying and implementing a novel way to capture and analyze the human‐computer interaction is outlined and discussed.

Because of the drawbacks associated with both formal, direct physical observation of research participants and videotaping participants, video screen capture technology is chosen as a better way to track human‐computer interaction.

Video screen capture technology is an inexpensive, user‐friendly way to enhance electronic resource usability studies in any library. Research files can be easily exported into coding software for data analysis.

The paper examines a new, non‐invasive way to capture student research behavior. It shows how any library could use this same technology to conduct research on how their resources are being used by their user population.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the ability of college freshmen to successfully use common academic software and manage files.

In total, 39 college freshmen from three college campuses were recruited for the study. An online test environment and screen recording software were used to measure student proficiency in using PDFs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Gmail, and Windows. Data were collected in September 2013.

Student use of academic technology is common, but their software skills are not comprehensive or deep. Students were most proficient at using PDFs and Microsoft Word. Microsoft Excel tasks were the most difficult for the students, and many struggled to use Gmail to compose a message and send an attachment. Students were able to open a PowerPoint document and view a slideshow, but they were less comfortable navigating the software’s printing environment.

Having concrete data about student technology skills, rather than anecdotal data from reference desk interactions, can help librarians design improved instruction and tutorials that target areas of student technology weakness.