Changing Scenario of Information Use Pattern in the Engineering Colleges in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

This paper analyses the changing scenario of information use pattern in the academic libraries of Tamilnadu. Libraries play a vital role in higher education and research. In fact, it collects a number of printed documents such as books, journals, magazines, encyclopedia, dictionaries, yearbooks, news papers and non-printed materials like CDs, Microfiche, Microfilms, Databases, e-learning resources related to the courses offered in the college/university in order to meet the various information requirements of users at graduate, post graduate and research levels. The ancient libraries preserved and circulated the information sources in the printed or written forms. But, the development of science and technology have modernized the form of documents and changed the information use pattern of users. It is seen that the present users prefer non-printed materials to printed one. In other words, the demand for non-printed materials is more than the printed one and the time utilized in the information communication technological based information sources and services is more than that in printed documents circulation section. It shows that there is a change in the information use pattern of users in higher educational libraries. Hence an attempt is made to find out the changing scenario of information use pattern and factors motivating it in the higher educational libraries of Tamilnadu.