University Library Users Research Articles

Service Quality Satisfaction: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study of Public and Private University Librarians in Pakistan

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to identify service quality differences among librarians working in the public and private sector university libraries of Pakistan. An adapted instrument based on the SERVQUAL model, comprised of 30 items and divided into four dimensions, (a) responsiveness; (b) reliability; (c) assurance; and (d) empathy, was used to measure the service quality of librarians. A convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from the users of public and private university libraries, with the Mann-Whitney

ICT Impact on ISB of Users in State Agricultural University Libraries in Karnataka: A Study

ICT Impact on ISB of Users in State Agricultural University Libraries in Karnataka: A Study

AN APPLICATION OF INFORMATION SEEKING ANXIETY SCALE TO A UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF PERADENIYA, SRI LANKA

Libraries and their users are nervous of falling behind with the rapid rate of technological change. All the forms of academic-related anxiety, and frustrations associated when searching information. Most of the research studies have shown that, majority of the undergraduates do not use the library resources in an expected level due to variety of anxieties.Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to assess and apply the Information seeking Anxiety Scale (ISAS) among university library users at University of Peradeniya and determines the suitability of application of this scale to a Sri Lankan university students relating to seeking of information.A survey research method was applied. Close-ended questionnaire was used as the research tool and data was collected from undergraduates in 2013/2014 academic year.The ISAS developed and validated by Mohammadamin, Abrizah and Karim, (2012) was taken as the base construct for this study. The overall a=0.902 of the original scale indicated and the Sri Lankan study increases up to 0.937. It indicates more or less similar results of the original study and it has been proved that, this scale can be applied to the Sri Lankan university context too. All the students are suffering with different types of anxieties related to the seeking of information. Therefore, it is better to have a year-based user education program for them to develop their skills to use resources without getting anxious.

An electronic university library user’s status: developing a concept and evaluation criteria

The article considers an approach of educational activity assessment of a university electronic library, which advantage is in collecting information about users, analyzing their personal data, requests, search history and offering library services for advanced requests. In this case the context is information about users available to a library. This information obtains dynamics determined by the changing user’s status (moving from academic year to year, entering master’s program, postgraduate courses, etc.), his interests and information needs related to academic and scientific activities, hobbies, which are able changing over time.

Use of electronic resources among research scholars and faculty members of university of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India: A survey

ICT has brought the revolutionary changes in the functioning of libraries and information centres. The impact of ICT including WWW and Internet is visible in every walk of life. The libraries are not the exception. Due to electronic publishing, many e-resources in the form of e-journals, e-books and online/off-line databases are being published. The academic libraries especially colleges and universities libraries have been procuring these resources for their libraries. Due to escalation in the cost of learning resources both printed and e-resources and financial problems the academic libraries are facing, the consortia models are being adopted and experimented for the procurement and access to e-resources by the colleges and universities. The first part of paper introduces the eresources, and its procurement under consortia models successfully implemented by INFLIBNET Centre since 2003. Under the UGC-INFONET Programme about 179 university libraries have been given access to e-resources which comprises of e-journals and online databases. The second part of the paper describes the use of e-resources by the research scholars and teachers of Allahabad University. In order to ascertain the usage of the journals by the research scholars and teachers of Allahabad University, the present study has been conceived to find out the use of e-resources which have been given access to the research scholars and teachers in the university campus mainly at Central Library and Departmental Libraries. To what extent the available e-resources are being utilized by the library users and what are their awareness level, usage pattern, preference of the publishers/journals etc. For this study survey method has been used using questionnaire as a data collection tool. This study has been carried out during January, 2015 to June, 2015. This is a preliminary pilot study conducted on smaller sample to ascertain the validity of the questionnaire. The simple random sampling technique has been adopted for the study. The findings of the study reveals that the library users belonging to younger generation have adopted the Internet, online/offline electronic resources or web resources very quickly and at the same time the elderly library users are not comfortable using Internet, social media and e-resources. They rely more on the traditional printed resources. In order to make the optimum use of the e-resources available for the university library users through consortia, extensive and frequent user's awareness programmes needs to be organised by the library in collaboration with INFLIBNET and other agencies.

Evaluating library service quality at the Aga Khan University library: Application of a total quality management approach

The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation of the service quality of the Aga Khan University library in Kenya. The total quality management philosophy which forms the basis of this report has been demonstrated by the use of SERVQUAL, a user-based assessment tool, in the evaluation of service quality. The research was conducted among 123 Aga Khan University library users – nursing and medical faculty and nursing and medical students – with an aim to investigate the quality of its services based on the satisfaction of library users with the services and as expressed by and based on users’ expectations and perceptions. The data was gathered through the SERVQUAL structured questionnaire and a 63% response rate was realized. The findings generally established that the expectations of Aga Khan University library users are higher than their perceptions. The results also show that there are service quality gaps in a number of services offered by the library. This research is deemed important as there is lack of information showing libraries in Kenya having involved library users in service quality evaluation through the use of objective and user-based tools. Thus this paper may lead to libraries in Kenya embracing objective measurement tools for the evaluation of library service quality. It is hoped that this article will contribute to a better understanding of philosophies such as total quality management in an academic library environment in developing countries, users’ expectations and perceptions of quality.

대학도서관 열람실 공간기준에 관한 연구

This research aims to establish the size standard of university library's user space, and present the standard and method to calculate total area required in the planning of new building construction and remodeling. Nine university libraries newly constructed or remodeled since 2000 were selected among the libraries of large scale universities with more than 10,000 enrolled students as the target libraries in this research. The target libraries were classified into A group (five cases partially remodeled) and B group (four cases newly constructed or fully remodeled) on the basis of the change of times. A university library can be divided into three spaces (user space, administration space and public space). This research classified the reading room in the user space into bookshelf zone, reading zone, information/office zone and hall/other zone, and analyzed area ratio according to each zone. B group's bookshelf zone decreased 12% more than A group, and B group's reading zone increased 10% more than A group. However, there was no big change in the area ratio of information/office zone and hall/other zone. This can be interpreted that university library changes from book and archive preservation-oriented space to user-oriented space. This research presented a proper reading room area calculation method, based on the capacity of books, by reflecting such a change. Each zone's standard was set up through classification of domestic and international standards, based on which, the calculation method of university library's total floor area required was presented. The reason why there was difference in university library's total floor area required according to domestic standard and international standard was that the number of enrolled students per seat in the reading room was different. The area calculation methods presented in this research can be utilized as useful data upon planning university library construction or remodeling.

E-Resource Usage Pattern Among Assam University Library Users Under Consortia Services: A Case Study

A consortium facilitates the member libraries to get the benefit of wider access to electronic resources at affordable cost and at the best terms of licenses. Further, the approaches to help to get attractive discounted rates and most of publishers responded positively to the call of consortia and are enthusiastic to give the best possible offers. This study aims to examine the e-resource usage pattern among the library users in the Assam University, Silchar. Further, it also examines the preference of e-resources among university library users and awareness of library consortia by them.

The issues and challenges facing a digital library with a special focus on the University of Calgary

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to focus on major issues involved in setting up a digital library, with special attention given to the University of Calgary’s new Taylor Family Digital Library, which was started in 2006 and completed in 2011 at a cost of $203 million.Design/methodology/approach– The paper will begin with a description of the targeted users. It will discuss user expectations for the digital library, which are often focused on the distributive function of the library to provide rapid and easy access to resources such as licensed e-journals and e-books. It will then explore issues related to the productive function, the digitization of collections. Finally, the paper will address the question: what purposes does digitization of collections serve?Findings– Although digital materials are becoming more popular with university library users, university libraries are not yet ready to abandon print library materials altogether for a wide variety of reasons.Originality/value– This is a case study of a library that claims to be unique: a university library which is truly digital in nature.

전공특성에 따른 대학도서관 주제자료실의 이용태도 및 공간 계획에 관한 연구

This study was conducted under the premise that the university library`s subject specialization room is in need of major modifications in order to accommodate the needs of various major. The subject specialization room will be able to support university library users who are inclined to use the general reading room. Therefore, the study presents spatial planning for the average university library`s subject specialization room by taking into account student majors. This could be a guideline for the construction and renovation of university libraries in the future. The summary of results for this study and the conclusion are as follow: 1)Natural sciences subject specialization room should be, partially connected with the humanities/social science subject specialization room in order to provide an open-concept reference room. In the shared area connecting the two subject specialization rooms needs to be installed a staff counter and subject specialist librarian service booth for users of both subject specialization rooms. 2)For humanities/social sciences subject specialization room, partially connect with the natural sciences subject specialization room. In the connecting area between the two rooms, plan an open-concept lounge for resting and reading. 3)It is best to plan subject specialization room for art/music/physical education majors separate from the subject specification room of other majors. Structurally separate art/music/physical education major subject specialization rooms from the building or plan a separate room in an art/music/physical education building. Users of art/music/physical education majors showed a high preference for a spatially separated and specialized library structure, which proves that an art/music/physical education library need to be planed based on the specialized library structure found in law school libraries or medical school libraries. Plan the center of the room with open-concept based reading room. Use wall-sides, partitions, or shelves to create reading space separate from the shelving area.

Attitudes of law university library users towards the use of Web OPAC in Karnataka

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of two law university libraries in the Karnataka state of southern India and their web-based online public access catalogue (web OPAC). Results from a survey of library users’ attitudes towards the use of the web OPAC, methods adopted to learn how to use the web OPAC, guidance sought to use the web OPAC and the extent of use of the web OPAC search facilities in select law school libraries in Karnataka are reported. Design/methodology/approach – To study the users’ attitudes towards the use of the web OPAC in law university libraries in Karnataka, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 300 users, including Bachelor Of Legislative Law students, Master of Laws students, research scholars and teaching staff. The sample population was chosen using the convenience sample method, and the researcher received 256 completed and usable questionnaires. A five-point Likert scale was used in the research questionnaire. Typical statistical tests such as mean and standard deviation were applied for the purpose of accuracy. Findings – The results of the survey indicated that 92.1 per cent of respondents were using the web OPAC. Most of the web OPAC users strongly agreed that they learned to use the web OPAC from a library orientation programme. It was found that there are positive attitudes towards the web OPAC search facility. The survey also found that the web OPAC search page has not given satisfactory guidance to web OPAC users. Practical implications – This research paper produces findings of relevance to any academic library to develop and implement a user-friendly web OPAC service. Originality/value – There have been no previous published research studies of the web OPAC and users’ attitudes in the law university libraries in Karnataka state.

Comparing digital libraries in the web and mobile contexts from the perspective of the digital divide

Building on concepts of the digital divide, this study explores and compares users’ perceptions of web digital libraries and mobile digital libraries in terms of ease of use and usefulness. Data collected from 306 university library users were analyzed. Two figures were used to present the exact nature of users’ perceptions of ease of use and usefulness in terms of data distribution. These figures were supplemented by the paired samples t test which presents the exact mean difference between web digital libraries and mobile digital libraries in terms of ease of use and usefulness. The data distribution suggests that there are more users who think digital libraries are both easy to use and useful whereas mobile digital libraries are neither easy to use nor useful. The mean comparison of ease of use and usefulness shows that web digital libraries significantly exceed mobile digital libraries. These findings and implications are discussed.

Investigating e-service quality criteria for university library: a focus group study

Purpose – Service quality and new electronic services are strategic issues for academic libraries in finding better ways to support learning and research. The aim of this study is to contribute to the literature by identifying the major e-service evaluation criteria from the point-of-view of users of the largest university library in Estonia. Design/methodology/approach – Focus groups were used to identify the most significant criteria of e-service quality. The data were interpreted in accordance with Krueger' seven attributes: words, context, internal consistency; frequency of comments; specificity of comments; intensity of comments; big ideas. Findings – The research brought out the following 15 quality criteria as most important for the university library users: user-friendliness, reliability, assurance, security, speed, credibility, relevance, clarity, competence, feedback, dialogue, participating, responsiveness, empathy, aesthetics. Each of these criteria was explained and discussed. Research limitations/implications – This list of quality criteria obtained by this qualitative method was considered as the first step to build a conceptual model of e-service quality and as the basis for developing the questionnaire for further quantitative survey. Practical implications – The study is showing the possibility to design e-services in accordance with users expectations, based on quality criteria important to them. Originality/value – The study offers a fresh view in analyzing the e-service quality and developing university library services. The study has shown that technological and marketing approaches for studying e-service quality may be complemented by another one – a social approach, based on communication, user participation and feedback.

Marketing Strategies for the University Libraries in Kerala

Libraries have been putting considerable efforts in the design of information products and services and distributing the same effectively and efficiently. In view of the social, economic, and technological changes, library and information centers have begun to realise that marketing of information products and services is an integral part of administration. This paper attempts to work out marketing strategies for the university libraries in Kerala by analysing the marketing orientation through a user survey. The data for the study was collected from a sample of 842 users of the university libraries in Kerala such as Kerala University Library (KUL), Mahatma Gandhi University Library (MGUL), Cochin University of Science and Technology Library (CUSATL), and CH Mohammed Koya Library of University of Calicut (CHMKL). The study found that most of the respondents are willing to pay for information services since they rely more on the quality of information services than the existing fee services. The preferred pricing policy is to provide necessary subsidy to the extent of 50 % based on the payment capacity of various user segments. The survey found that only a few users are aware of existing service offered by the university libraries and there is need for effective promotional strategies. The study suggested various strategies for repositioning the university libraries in Kerala for marketing. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology , 2014, 33(5), pp. 399-404. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.33.5105

Exploring Users' Perceptions of Conventional and Unconventional Electronic Resources

This study explores and compares Chinese university library users' perceptions of conventional electronic resources inside the library and unconventional electronic resources outside the library in terms of ease of use, usefulness, and usage. Data collected from 278 library users were used for data analysis. The independent samples t test and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) present the exact nature of library users' perceptions of conventional electronic resources and unconventional electronic resources. The paired samples t test suggests that unconventional electronic resources outside the library are playing a role as a complement rather than a substitute to the conventional electronic resources inside the library. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates that both ease of use and usefulness can predict usage in the case of both conventional and unconventional electronic resources. These findings and their implications are discussed.

Exploring Users' Perceptions of Conventional and Unconventional Electronic Resources

This study explores and compares Chinese university library users' perceptions of conventional electronic resources inside the library and unconventional electronic resources outside the library in terms of ease of use, usefulness, and usage. Data collected from 278 library users were used for data analysis. The independent samples t test and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) present the exact nature of library users' perceptions of conventional electronic resources and unconventional electronic resources. The paired samples t test suggests that unconventional electronic resources outside the library are playing a role as a complement rather than a substitute to the conventional electronic resources inside the library. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates that both ease of use and usefulness can predict usage in the case of both conventional and unconventional electronic resources. These findings and their implications are discussed.

Information Needs and Seeking Behavior of Assam University Library Users

Information plays an important role in teaching, research and development. Moreover, information is growing in ever increasing volume and rate, in every field of human activity. During the recent decades, information needs have increased in volume and variety so also the information is necessary to be reprocessed and repackaged for different types of users so as to go with their needs. The researcher in this paper attempted to find out the information needs and seeking behavior of the users of Assam University Library, Silchar. Survey method was used and data was collected from 500 users of the library by administering questionnaires. The results of the study indicate that guidance and training is required for the use of library resources and services. Textbooks and periodicals are the most popular sources of information for the users. Library automation was found to be the need of the hour by most of the faculty members and research scholars. KeywordsInformation needs, Information seeking behavior, users, adequacy of collection, Information barrier constraints.

An independent assessment of the unidimensionality, reliability, validity and factor structure of the LibQUAL+™ scale

This empirical study provides a thorough measurement analysis of the LibQUAL+™ scale for measuring library service quality. In particular, the study assesses the unidimensionality of the scale, the scale's psychometric properties and its factor structure. Data were gathered using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to a sample of university library users: 189 in Canada and 374 in Mexico. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the study confirms the assumption of unidimensionality in only two of the three current sub-dimensions of the scale. The results of this study also show that the LibQUAL+™ scale consists of four dimensions. The remainder of the CFA results in the study provides strong support for the general reliability and validity of the four-dimensional structure.

Use of Electronic Resources and its Impact: A Study of Dhaka University Library Users

This paper presents and analyses the status of electronic resources facilities and services provided by the Dhaka University Library (DUL). It also discusses the purpose of using e-resources, benefits, subject coverage status, overall user satisfactions, problems that are faced by DUL users while accessing e-resources and perceived impact of e-resources on users. Finally, it reports the results from questionnaire-based survey of e-resources use and its impact on DUL users. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/el.v23i1.12122 Eastern Librarian Vol.23(1) 2012 pp.74-90

A EXPERIÊNCIA PIONEIRA DO ENSINO À DISTÂNCIA EM TREINAMENTO DE USUÁRIOS DE BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITÁRIAS

The aim of this article is to relate our experiences of creating and implementing the first distance education course in “Database norms for scientific publications and research: a complement to educational activities for university library users”. The research was carried out by the Technical Division of Librarianship and Documentation at Universidade Estadual Paulista “Julio de Mesquita Filho” (Botucatu- Rubiã Junior campus) and the Center for Distance Health Education and Information Technology at the Botucatu Faculty of Medicine. The study was carried out from August to November 2009 using 10 different university classes. Out of the 128 enrolled students, 63% completed their studies. 37%, however, finished their studies at various stages of the course. Despite these problems, there was positive feedback about adopting the new methodology, which subsequently led to its widespread application in the academic community. The pioneering experience of multidisciplinary teamwork places librarians as ‘knowledge mediators’, thus enabling them to become part of the development of the educational process.