Reshaping Libraries for the 21st Century: User Perspectives
Main Article Content
Abstract
New technologies have changed the landscape of libraries and library users. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present the findings on twenty first century library users’ information needs and challenges. Data was collected through an online survey tool called Survey Monkey. The survey was designed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Convenient and snowballing sampling techniques were adopted due to the lack of a pre-defined population of study. Therefore, a total of 82 online participants took part in the study.
The majority (76%) of the participants expected 21st century libraries to have spaces for community building. The most expected library facilities were identified as: E-learning class rooms (79%), technology hubs (73%), group-work stations and video-conferencing (68%), and Social spaces (60%). Expected library services were: online reference services (84%), Access to Wi-Fi (74%), personalized library (69%), and OPAC (61%). The major user challenges were: poor internet connectivity (68%), inadequate online services (64%), and, shortage of technological resources (63%).
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