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Technology was once believed to be a barrier to international students in using library services in the USA. This paper seeks to investigate mobile device ownership among international students as many academic libraries are rapidly introducing mobile library services.

An online survey was created to invite international students enrolled at the College of Business at the University of Illinois. In total, 101 valid responses were gathered. The survey asked ownership of three specific mobile devices among international students: smartphones, tablet PCs, and e‐readers.

A surprisingly high percentage of international students (82 percent) owned smartphones. While ownership of tablet PCs was also high, international students did not seem too interested in e‐readers. While communication was their favorite activity using mobile devices, international students also frequently used mobile devices to access social networking sites and search for information.

The results imply that international students may actually be more prepared than domestic students in terms of mobile device ownership. It is important for libraries to acknowledge this high ownership of mobile devices among international students and evaluate their mobile strategies accordingly.

The paper examines an important student population that has often exhibited different information seeking behavior from that of domestic students.

This study seeks to explore and report international business students’ perceptions and expectations of electronic library services at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign. A total of 143 international business students on campus volunteered to fill out a survey. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics such as t‐tests and correlation. A significant portion of international business students has no prior experience with electronic library services in their home countries. Moreover, about a half of international business students go to libraries other than the Business and Economics Library, partly because they provide better environment for study. Although electronic resources are available without the constraint of location, providing reference services for those who do not use the Business and Economics Library becomes a challenge. Virtual reference is an excellent tool, but most international business students do not see it as an important library service. Based on the results, implications for information literacy and virtual reference service are discussed.