Abstract: This paper studied how to assess the educational function of university library by using the factor analysis, cluster analysis and correlation analysis methods through the questionnaire. It founded empirically that readers in Lishui University were identified into four groups, including research reader, self-study reader, strolling reader and reader stayed in the library all day long; different library use patterns and different types of readers had different levels of correlation with the play of library’s educational function perceived by readers. Studying, searching data, doing research, learning together had certain dependency with students ‘educational outcomes; particularly, only using the computer was not related to students ‘educational outcomes. It also studied how the four different types of reader grouped by clustering analysis related to students ‘educational outcomes, which was a certain innovation.

Key words: Factor analysis