In this study, research was conducted on the information needs of Unisa students. Most distance students do not personally visit the library, which makes it difficult for librarians to determine whether or not they are meeting their needs. The library plays an important support role in any university, especially in the open distance learning context. It is therefore important for librarians serving distance learners to continually evaluate their services in order to see if they are still meeting their client’s needs. The aim of this study was to determine if students are aware of the library services to which they are entitled, and if the library is successfully reaching and assisting remote students, and how its services can be improved. Questionnaires were posted to students, and interviews were conducted with on-campus students and staff. Chapter 1 covers the orientation and background to the study. Chapter 2 discusses the research methods used to collect information. In Chapter 3, the library needs of distance learners were discussed, while Chapter 4 presented a discussion of the findings drawn from the questionnaires and interviews, and Chapter 5 makes recommendations based upon these findings. It was found that some of the students surveyed were not aware of their library privileges. It is recommended that the Unisa library employ better strategies to market the library services available to students. Furthermore, the library needs to find better ways to reach out to remote students who have no access to information and communications technology upon which the modern library is so reliant.

Public libraries, globally, are adopting the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to improve services to the users. ICTs in public libraries are enhancing services to the users by ensuring that services are available to them quickly and efficiently. ICTs in public libraries include computers and their Internet-based facilities, printers, photocopiers, laminators, faxes, telephones, televisions, compact discs, (CDs) and digital video discs (DVDs). This study focussed on the utilisation of ICTs in public libraries at Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM). The general aim of the study was to assess the utilisation of ICTs at EMM public libraries by the users. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches through a survey research method were deployed. The study targeted all public libraries at Ekurhuleni and within the libraries; library users and control librarians (librarians in charge of libraries at Ekurhuleni) were targeted. Control librarians participated in the study as key informants. The researcher needed to find out if they would corroborate what users said. There is a total of 43 public libraries at Ekurhuleni and eight were included in this study. These eight libraries were selected through stratified sampling. Out of 24033 registered users at Ekurhuleni libraries, 332 were randomly selected to take part in the study. All eight control librarians of participating libraries were included in the study. The total response rate for the targeted library users was 51% (170). The findings of this study indicate that although ICTs in EMM libraries are highly utilised, staff attitudes, cost of ICTs services, users’ lack of ICTs knowledge and skills, slowness of ICTs and power failure, make it difficult for users to maximise the full benefits offered by ICTs. The study recommended that the cost of ICTs services be reduced, customer care workshops and ICTs training be prioritised for staff, structured ICTs training programmes be developed for library users, users’ access time to Internet be extended, subscription to online databases be prioritised, Internet bandwidth be increased, uninterrupted power supply be installed in libraries and that positions be created for librarians specialising on ICTs. / Information Science / MA (Information Science)

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-11-27T11:18:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Raquel da Silva Oliveira.pdf: 1137899 bytes, checksum: a04a994219ee98f5878458d9f061af9a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-27T11:18:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Raquel da Silva Oliveira.pdf: 1137899 bytes, checksum: a04a994219ee98f5878458d9f061af9a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-09-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work aimed to analyze the profile of the users, their literary choices and the possible increases that the creation of public libraries, in regions highly deprived of public cultural equipment, causes in the population of its surroundings, with support in the contributions of Bourdieu and Darbel (2003), primarily with regard to access to cultural assets and their relationship with the cultural capital of users. In order to do so, through a statistical series of statistical data of use, analyzed the increment of the use of the public libraries of the CEUs – Centro de Educação Unificado, from the City Hall of São Paulo, from 2006 to 2017. Created in this new project of school equipment, libraries were planned not only to serve it, but also to promote the use of the whole community around it in which practically the totality of the 46 units is located in neighborhoods of the urban periphery. As indicators of the users' profile and the use of the units, the data referring to age, sex and level of schooling were collected and organized in tables and graphs, crossing them with the type of literature they are looking for (children's literature, literature in general, books didactic and reference works). The main findings were: expressive growth of loans in the period, predominantly by white, female and with at least minimum elementary education / Este trabalho teve por objetivo analisar o perfil dos usuários, suas escolhas literárias e os possíveis incrementos que a criação de bibliotecas públicas, em regiões altamente carentes de equipamentos culturais públicos, causa na população de seu entorno, com apoio nas contribuições de Bourdieu e Darbel (2003), primordialmente no que se refere ao acesso a bens culturais e sua relação com o capital cultural dos usuários Para tanto, por meio de série histórica de dados estatísticos de uso, analisou o incremento da utilização das bibliotecas públicas da rede CEUs - Centros Educacionais Unificados, da Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo, no período de 2006 a 2017. Criadas nesse novo projeto de equipamento escolar, as bibliotecas foram planejadas não só para servir a ele, como para favorecer o uso por toda a comunidade de seu entorno, na medida em que praticamente a totalidade das 46 unidades situa-se em bairros da periferia urbana. Como indicadores do perfil dos usuários e do uso das unidades foram levantados e organizados em tabelas e gráficos os dados referentes à idade, sexo, raça/cor e nível de escolaridade, cruzando-os com o tipo de literatura que procuram (literatura infantojuvenil, literatura geral, livros didáticos e obras de referência). Os principais achados foram: crescimento expressivo dos empréstimos no período, com predominância por usuários brancos, do sexo feminino e com, no mínimo e, no mínimo, com formação de ensino fundamental

The discussion of introducing the Internet at St. Joseph's Theological Institute in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa took place in 2002 and access to the Internet was introduced in 2003 via 70 computers which were housed in the library. Given that the Internet has emerged as an important learning tool at the tertiary level, the aim of the study was to investigate the use of the Internet by the students at St. Joseph's. The specific objectives of the study were as follows: to find out which students were using the Internet, to find out what students were using the Internet for, to find how often students used the Internet and when they used it, to find out the problems experienced by those students who used the Internet, to find out why certain students do not use the Internet, and lastly the study aimed to make recommendations concerning the use of the Internet by students. The survey research method was used and the data was collected through a self administered questionnaire. No sampling was done as the entire population of 188 students was surveyed. Sixty five students responded - a response rate of 34.6 %. Findings revealed that of the 65 students who completed the questionnaires 34 (52.3%) had used the Internet and 31 (47.6%) had not. Out of the 24 respondents who gave reasons for not having used the Internet, the majority 17 (70.8%) of respondents said that they had not received formal training and did not know how to use the Internet. The major problems facing the Internet users at St. Joseph 's were the shortage of computers mentioned by 13 (38.2%) respondents and computers being slow as indicated by 13 (38.2%) respondents. Six (17.6%) respondents also pointed to not having enough training in the use of Internet facilities. Recommendations concerning Internet use at the Institute were made and suggestions for further research put forward. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

In this study, research was conducted on the information needs of Unisa students. Most distance students do not personally visit the library, which makes it difficult for librarians to determine whether or not they are meeting their needs. The library plays an important support role in any university, especially in the open distance learning context. It is therefore important for librarians serving distance learners to continually evaluate their services in order to see if they are still meeting their client’s needs. The aim of this study was to determine if students are aware of the library services to which they are entitled, and if the library is successfully reaching and assisting remote students, and how its services can be improved. Questionnaires were posted to students, and interviews were conducted with on-campus students and staff. Chapter 1 covers the orientation and background to the study. Chapter 2 discusses the research methods used to collect information. In Chapter 3, the library needs of distance learners were discussed, while Chapter 4 presented a discussion of the findings drawn from the questionnaires and interviews, and Chapter 5 makes recommendations based upon these findings. It was found that some of the students surveyed were not aware of their library privileges. It is recommended that the Unisa library employ better strategies to market the library services available to students. Furthermore, the library needs to find better ways to reach out to remote students who have no access to information and communications technology upon which the modern library is so reliant.

Library anxiety has been a concept since 1986, when Constance A. Mellon coined the phenomenon through her qualitative study on feelings that students experienced when interacting with academic libraries. In this essay we are looking at the origin of the concept through earlier research on the known barriers, trying to see what makes library anxiety unique compared to other seemingly related concepts, for example information anxiety. We’ve found many different concepts which can be part of library anxiety, or vice-versa, and many different extensions of LAS – the original scale to measure library anxiety. We aim to unravel some of those concepts we find of importance for library anxiety and its discourse. Looking at this through the lenses of Koselleck’s take on conceptual history, we see possible conflicts on where the concept library anxiety are heading; depending on what aspects of the concept the researcher read into and focusing on and in what context and time the articles were made. We also try to see who is considered responsible for shaping the discourse and if there is some kind of hegemonic struggle therein.

Public libraries, globally, are adopting the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to improve services to the users. ICTs in public libraries are enhancing services to the users by ensuring that services are available to them quickly and efficiently. ICTs in public libraries include computers and their Internet-based facilities, printers, photocopiers, laminators, faxes, telephones, televisions, compact discs, (CDs) and digital video discs (DVDs). This study focussed on the utilisation of ICTs in public libraries at Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM). The general aim of the study was to assess the utilisation of ICTs at EMM public libraries by the users. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches through a survey research method were deployed. The study targeted all public libraries at Ekurhuleni and within the libraries; library users and control librarians (librarians in charge of libraries at Ekurhuleni) were targeted. Control librarians participated in the study as key informants. The researcher needed to find out if they would corroborate what users said. There is a total of 43 public libraries at Ekurhuleni and eight were included in this study. These eight libraries were selected through stratified sampling. Out of 24033 registered users at Ekurhuleni libraries, 332 were randomly selected to take part in the study. All eight control librarians of participating libraries were included in the study. The total response rate for the targeted library users was 51% (170). The findings of this study indicate that although ICTs in EMM libraries are highly utilised, staff attitudes, cost of ICTs services, users’ lack of ICTs knowledge and skills, slowness of ICTs and power failure, make it difficult for users to maximise the full benefits offered by ICTs. The study recommended that the cost of ICTs services be reduced, customer care workshops and ICTs training be prioritised for staff, structured ICTs training programmes be developed for library users, users’ access time to Internet be extended, subscription to online databases be prioritised, Internet bandwidth be increased, uninterrupted power supply be installed in libraries and that positions be created for librarians specialising on ICTs. / Information Science / M. Inf.

Introduction. Simulation-based training courses are commonly used in medical and teacher education in order to practice handling difficult tasks and situations in a safe environment. This paper researches a training course held by the university library of Linköping. Using simulations with avatars the librarians acted out challenging and troublesome scenarios with library users. The library users were played by computer simulated avatars, in a virtual environment. The avatars were controlled by a simulation specialist. The aim of the paper is to research if and how this kind of simulation-based training course can strengthen librarians’ ability to handle difficult situations with library users, and if it can be a useful tool in the aim to improve the workplace environment. Method. To find out the thoughts and feelings of the participants of the training course, a questionnaire was distributed to all participants. To get a deeper understanding, five of the participants also took part in an interview. One of the simulation-specialists and the librarian who led the training course, were also interviewed, to find out more about the simulation-based training course. Lastly, both authors of this paper participated in a short simulation exercise as well, to gain a deeper understanding of how it works. Analysis. The research material from the questionnaires and interviews were analyzed using Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, Stevan E. Hobfoll’s resource theory, and John Dewey’s education theory. The three theories together made possible for us to research the simulation-based training course from several different perspectives. This enabled an investigation into the training course’s potential to strengthen the librarians’ ability to handle difficult situations, conserve resources and make them resilient, and what this unique form of training course can teach. Results. The questionnaires and interviews show that difficult or threatening situations with library users rarely occur at the university library where the participants work. The respondents emphasize however, the importance of recurrent training in the treatment of library users. A few respondents express that they feel safer after completing the training course, and that they feel better prepared to face difficult situations with library users. The results also show that the simulation-based training course is a good way to learn as it is based on the real experiences of the librarians, and they get to be physically active, using their bodies in acting during the scenarios. Conclusions. The findings of this research suggest that this kind of simulation-based training course in handling difficult situations with library users, has the potential to strengthen librarians’ resilience and ability to handle difficult situations. It concludes as well that the form of the training course, acting out scenarios with computer simulated avatars, is a good way to learn different strategies to cope with challenging situations. Any overarching conclusions cannot be drawn since this paper only research one training course and it is not within its scope to study the long-term effects.  This is a two-year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

This bachelor’s thesis deals with how the spatiality of libraries can correlate with instances of disorderly user behaviors. The fact that public libraries are among the types that are most prone to disorder, while Kriminalvården’s (the Swedish correctional service’s) librarians rarely experience similar problematic behaviors, could be said to illustrate a balancing act between anarchy and a manic need for control; where the most ideal compromise is, is based both upon personal values and the situation at hand.   To compare different reasonings about the room and the users, public librarians’ perspectives on factors of architecture and design have been contrasted with how librarians within Kriminalvården view the matter. The study has mainly been carried out using qualitative semi-structured interviews as well as a supplementary questionnaire. Operationalized factors of spatial influence in the form of categorized opposites (accessible/inaccessible, comfortable/repellent, visible/obscured, enabling/forbidding), which were identified early on and have guided the investigation, are used both implicitly in the interview guides and the questionnaire as well as explicitly in reading for the thematic analysis.   The terms “ideal type”, “heterotopia”, and “panopticon/panopticism” are used theoretically to deepen the understanding of the essay’s collected data: their suitability emerges in the nuances of what libraries can/should be; what happens when you bring together multiple functions in one space; as well as how control through surveillance can be understood and applied in library spaces.   The results show several differences at the operational level, but also similarities in terms of the librarian’s approach and view on problematic factors. Public libraries often have many functions (that do not always interact harmoniously) and offer more freedom, which risks their orderliness, while Kriminalvårdens library operations (which consists almost exclusively of literature distribution) have more order – but at the expense of user´s freedom.    The study’s outcome can be used as a basis of knowledge for practical planning of library design, but also as a springboard for further research. The effect of spatiality on users can prove important for the orderliness, atmosphere, and security of a library: cultivating an awareness regarding these possibilities of influence can thus be considered of great interest. / Denna kandidatuppsats hanterar hur biblioteks spatiala utformning kan korrelera med förekomster av ”biblioteksstök”. Att folkbibliotek är bland de mest stök-utsatta typerna, medan Kriminalvårdens bibliotekarier sällan upplever liknande problembeteenden, skulle kunna sägas illustrera en balansakt mellan anarki och kontrollmani; var den mest idealiska kompromissen ligger bygger på personliga värderingar och vad situationen kräver.    För att jämföra olika resonemang kring rummet och användarna har folkbibliotekariers perspektiv på arkitektoniska och designmässiga faktorer satts i kontrast mot hur bibliotekarier inom Kriminalvården ser på saken. Studien har genomförts främst med hjälp av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en kompletterande enkät. Operationaliseringar av spatiala påverkansfaktorer i form av kategoriserade motpoler (tillgängligt/svårtillgängligt, komfortabelt/avvisande, överblickbart/skymt, tillåtande/hindrande), som i förtid identifierats och styrt undersökningen, har använts både implicit i intervjuguiderna samt enkäten och explicit i utläsningen för den tematiska analysen.  Begreppen ”idealtyp”, ”heterotopi”, och ”panoptikon/panopticism” används teoretiskt för att fördjupa förståelsen av uppsatsens empiri: deras lämplighet framkommer i nyanserandet av vad bibliotek kan/bör vara; effekten av att sammanföra flera användningsområden i samma utrymme; samt hur kontroll genom övervakning kan förstås och appliceras i biblioteksutrymmen.    Resultatet visar på flera skillnader på verksamhetsnivå men även likheter i fråga om bibliotekariernas förhållningssätt och syn på problematiska faktorer. Folkbibliotek har ofta många funktioner (som inte alltid samspelar harmoniskt) och erbjuder mer frihet vilket riskerar kosta ordning, medan Kriminalvårdens biblioteksverksamhet (som utgörs närmast uteslutande av litteraturförmedling) har mer ordning – men på bekostnad av användarnas frihet.   Studiens utfall kan användas som kunskapsgrund för praktisk planering av biblioteksutformning, men även som en språngbräda för vidare forskning. Det spatialas influens över användare kan ha betydelse för biblioteks ordning, atmosfär, och trygghet: att kultivera en medvetenhet kring dessa påverkansmöjligheter kan därmed anses vara av stort intresse.

Thesis (M.A. (Information Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) plays a critical role in assisting library patrons to effectively and efficiently locate information resources from the academic library. This study examined awareness and usage of the existing OPAC functionalities and capabilities among undergraduate students at the University of Venda (UNIVEN). The research methodology for the study was guided by the adoption of quantitative research approach and descriptive survey design. The data collection tool used was a google forms questionnaire, through which the link was distributed to all undergraduate students at UNIVEN via e-mail. Systematic random sampling method was used to arrive at a sampling frame of five hundred and sixty-three (563) participants represented in all eight (8) schools that comprise UNIVEN academic structure. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of undergraduate students rated their level of awareness as average. Their major source of awareness of OPAC is library training. Most of respondents were not aware and familiar with OPAC functionalities such as Boolean operators, truncation marks and advanced search. The study further revealed positive attitudes and promising perceptions towards OPAC. In terms of usage, the findings show that most of the respondents occasionally use OPAC, and the majority use a title search entry to conduct their search on OPAC and they prefer to use a simple search option. Furthermore, most of participants showed that their purpose of OPAC usage is to locate books in the library. The major challenge encountered by respondents in using OPAC was slow internet connectivity and their lack of skills in searching information from OPAC. Based on these findings, this study recommends that librarians ought to promote the importance of using all OPAC functionalities to improve awareness and optimal usage of the OPAC functionalities as an information retrieval tool. There is a need for intensified training on advanced search options, such as Boolean operators, Truncation marks and advanced search, through one-on-one instruction and Lib-guides.