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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/3171 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Ramasodi, Busisiwe |
| Contributors | Burger, M., De Beer, C.S. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 line resource (x, 130 p.) |
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