The study focused on the evaluation of the psychology book collection at UNITRA library.
In particular, the study investigated the adequacy of the psychology book collection in terms
of accessibility, availability, and pertinence. A sample of 264 respondents was selected from
a population of 1123 students. A proportionate random sampling was used to select
respondents from each stratum. The survey method was used, and questionnaires were
administered to the sample of 1995 registered psychology students at UNITRA from Year
1 to Honours level. The questionnaire focused on the research questions, relating to
accessibility , availability, and pertinence of the psychology collection. The data was analysed
by means of a statistical package, SAS. The results were interpreted in relation to the
variables. The findings revealed that accessibility and availability were affected by: the
attendance of the first library orientation programme which is usually offered at the beginning
of the year; the availability of library services at high school; the number of copies of the
same title in the library; library opening hours; attitude of the librarians; procedure for
locating books; number of borrower cards; and the age of books in the library.
The identification of entries representing books on the catalogue, and the location of books
on the shelves were found to be easier for those users who had attended library orientation
and those who had libraries at their high school. It was recommended that lecturers and
librarians should encourage students to also use the subject catalogue in order to get more
books on the same subject. A number of other recommendations were suggested taken from
the findings and other authorities on the subject to improve the accessibility, availability and
pertinence of the psychology collection. The development of a written collection development
policy would make the implementation of the above recommendations easier. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/5982 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Breakfast, Kholeka. |
| Contributors | Kaniki, Andrew M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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