Barriers to the Use of Library Collection vs. Demographic Characteristics of Engineering College Library Users in Karnataka: A Study

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on the barriers of using library collection vs. demographic variables of the users of Mysore region engineering college libraries (MRECL) in Karnataka. The principal objective of the study therefore, is to assess the relationship between the four demographic variables such as gender, age, educational qualifications and designation with that of barriers to the use library collection. This is shown by the way of cross tabulation of barriers and user characteristics. A structured questionnaire was designed for the survey, which was randomly distributed among 1000 engineering college faculties of the Mysore Region and 760 (76%) complete questionnaires were received. The data collected through questionnaire were organized and tabulated by using SPSS. In this study, four demographic factors such as gender, age, designation and education qualifications are correlated with that of the barriers towards the use of library collection such as lack of knowledge in using library catalogue, lack of information about how to use library resources and tools, lack of time to acquire skills needed to use library resources, less computer systems to access e-resources from the library, lack of support from library staff etc. The study reveals that for the barriers of ‘Less Computer Systems to Access e-resources from the Library’ there is significant differences (2= 60.224; P<0.000) more number scoring 139 (18.3%) of MRECL ‘strongly agree’ about barriers towards the use of library collection with the highest mean value of 3.22 and SD being 18.3. Therefore, the parameter ‘Lack of Knowledge in using Library Catalogue vs. Education Qualification’, the biggest choice was ‘disagree’ constituting 25.7%. Among individual respondents such as BE, the choice is once again ‘agree’ scoring 40.5%; 24.6%; BE., M Tech; the choice is ‘neither agree or nor disagree’ scoring 58.7% and BE, M. Tech, PhD holders big choice was ‘strongly disagree’ scoring 28.6% respectively; for the parameter ‘lack of information about how to use library resources and tools vs. education qualification’, the biggest choice was ‘disagree’ constituting 30.5%. Among individual respondents such as BE, BE, M. Tech and the choice is once again ‘disagree’ scoring varying percentages like 38.0%; 30.5%; and BE, M Tech, PhD holders big choice was ‘strongly disagree’ scoring 25.4% respectively; for the parameter ‘lack of time to acquire skills needed to use library resources vs. education qualification’, the biggest choice was ‘disagree’ constituting 27.5%. Among individual respondents such as BE; BE, M. Tech and the choice is once again ‘disagree’ scoring varying percentages like 36.7%, 27.2% and BE, M Tech, PhD holders big choice was ‘neither agree or nor disagree’ scoring 27.9% respectively. The other barriers to use library collection take a subsequent stand as shown in the various tables. Keywords: Karnataka, barriers and use of library collection, use of library collection, demographic variables, faculty members, engineering colleges, Mysore region Cite this Article Khaiser Nikam, Shivakumaraswmay KN. Barriers to the use of library collection vs. demographic characteristics of engineering college library users in karnataka: a study. Journal of Advancements in Library Sciences. 2015; 2(3): 46–56p