Digital hoarding behavior of librarians from research universities: The case of Türkiye

Digital hoarding involves accumulating digital materials that are no longer useful, often due to reluctance or difficulty in deleting them. While this behavior has been studied among general users, students, and academics, it has not been examined among librarians, whose professional roles include processes such as selecting, storing, and weeding information. This study bridges that gap by exploring the digital hoarding behaviors of librarians at research universities in Türkiye, specifically investigating whether digital hoarding in this group is better understood as a general, field-related tendency or as a behavior specific to technology. A quantitative, descriptive, and predictive correlational design was employed, collecting data from 121 librarians through a four-part questionnaire whose validity and reliability had been confirmed. Data analysis involved independent-samples t-tests, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression. Results showed that self-reported digital hoarding was strongly and positively associated with physical hoarding tendencies and moderately associated with frequency of keeping digital files. These two factors, together, explained 58.5% of the variance in digital hoarding behavior, with physical hoarding being the stronger predictor. No significant differences in digital hoarding behavior were observed based on gender, age, or years of professional experience. As the study is cross-sectional and reliant on self-reports, the findings are interpreted as associations rather than causal relationships. The research adds an occupational context to the cognitive-behavioral model of hoarding and suggests that awareness-raising and intervention strategies in academic libraries should address the emotional and cognitive triggers of hoarding, not just the technical aspects of file management.