USERS SATISFACTION TOWARDS PUBLIC LIBRARIES: A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO UDUMALPET

Library Management

International Conference on Research avenues in Social Science

Libraries are major sources of providing equal, safe, and reliable access to information. Public libraries serve the general public. The work has attempted to study the profile of the public libraries, factors affecting frequency of visiting public libraries, level of satisfaction with the services of public libraries and overall service quality of public libraries. Visitors register provided the frame work of the respondents to be covered. Users of public library belonging to Udumalpet town constituted the sampling frame. A sample of 120 respondents using public library was selected adopting random sampling technique. Primary data required was collected using structured questionnaire. Secondary data was gathered from records maintained by the respective public library. All the three libraries showed fluctuations in the number of registered members. The highest number of 558 members were registered in Ulavarsandhai library in the year 2013-14. The total number of visits by users of all the three libraries has shown improvement during the study period. The public libraries are collecting an amount of Rupee one towards delay in return of one book for every 15 days. Of the total books issued by all the three libraries during the study period, 38% was by Ulavarsandhai library, 34% was by Kuttai library and the balance 29% was by Gandhinagar library. All the three public libraries were having 135 racks, 132 lights, 132 chairs, 116 desks and 88 fans as infrastructure. 90% of the total books in all the three libraries were in Tamil language. Of the respondents covered under the study, 58% were below 30 years. 58% of the respondents were male. 56% of the respondents were married. 48% were graduates. 30% were self-employed. 56% had become member of the public library between 2006-2010. 48% of the respondents obtained membership for light reading. 48% of the respondents were visiting the library everyday. 64% visit the library to read newspapers. The nature of support extended by public libraries in enhancing the knowledge was through availability of more number of books. 90% of the respondents visit public libraries due to self-motivation. 81% percent of the respondents visit the library alone. 38% spent one to two hours in the library. The respondents were highly satisfied with the availability of newspapers (533) followed by availability of books (524) and availability of magazines (492). The respondents highly preferred to read in Tamil language(570). High preference was for Dhinamani (549) and The Hindu(562) newspapers. 57% expected improvement in the number of books. 50% had problems relating to vehicle stand. Gender, marital status, occupation and membership in library were positively correlated with users’ satisfaction. Age and marital status significantly affected frequency of reading newspapers. Gender significantly affected frequency of reading magazines. Gender and time spent in library significantly affected level of satisfaction for library services. The global society is undergoing rapid changes. However, in the globalised environment, lot of efforts has to be taken to upgrade public libraries to international standards through computerization and networking of resources.

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