Page 1 of 11

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 06

July 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 225

Awareness and Use of Library Resources and Services: A

Survey of Panjab University Extension Library Ludhiana

Jatinder Kumar1*, Dr. Asha Narang2, Gurpreet Singh3, Dr. Suman Sumi4

1. Librarian, Baddi University of Emerging Sciences & Technology, Baddi, Dist. Solan, Himachal Pradesh

2. Asst. Professor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab

3. Library Assistant, Panjab University Extension Library, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, Punjab

4. Assistant Librarian, Panjab University, Chandigarh

E-mail: jksamyal@gmail.com,

ABSTRACT

Library as a social institution plays a vital

role in the socio-economic development of

the society. It provides a wide variety of

resources and services to cater the needs

of the users. In age of Information and

Communication Technology when

everybody seems IT savvy and busy in

scanning there desired information from

Internet, the role of Libraries become

more important, as users expect more

besides books. The challenge in front of

libraries is to provide current and

exhaustive information to the user within

no time and with less effort. In this

research paper a survey has been

conducted to know users’ awareness about

the resources and services available in the

Panjab University Extension Library and

to further study the use of these resources

and services. A well-structured

questionnaire was designed to get the first

hand information. Out of 130 distributed

questionnaires, we received 100 filled

responses. Respondents were asked to give

suggestion to improve the services of

library and also to increase the usage of

the resources. The study shows that library

users are quite satisfied with available

holdings and services but they want more

ICT based resources and infrastructure for

easy access of information.

Keywords: Library resources, Library

services, PU Extension Library,

Awareness and use of library resources

1. INTRODUCTION

People who live in a society should have

up-to-date information about nature,

society and self (Vyas, 1993)1

. In an

increasingly technology driven world,

people have become accustomed to get

instant and easy results. They look for easy

ways to get their desired information.

Thanks to the Internet which has

revolutionized the people’s way of

thinking, searching and accessing With the

help of Internet, people can search

information from anywhere at any time.

So, questions arise, if every piece of

information is available on the Internet,

than why people need to use/consult the

library? Why do they not get all the

information from the Internet? Why they

visit the library? Is spending on library

worthy and do we really get any return

from this spending? Is it just a display of

intellectual elitism to have a library on an

academic campus? (Kumar, 2014)2

To answer all these questions we will have

to understand the meaning and importance

of the library and will have to put light on

its valuable resources and services.

2. LIBRARY FOR COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT

Libraries play a vital role in the overall

development of the society (Sharma,

1987)3

. Only libraries are supposed to

collect the information, preserve, process

and provide library service to the people.

Page 2 of 11

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 06

July 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 226

In the recent past the library was “expected

to collect, arrange and preserve reading

material and make these available on

demand” (Rajkoomar, 2014)4

. A library is

a treasure-house of knowledge. A well- stocked library is an asset to the school,

college, university or the neighbourhood

(Wikipedia.org, 2014)5

. It is an organized

collection of sources of information and

similar resources, made accessible to a

defined community for reference or

borrowing. It provides physical or digital

access to material, and may be a physical

building or room, or a virtual space, or

both. Libraries range in size from a few

shelves of books to several million items.

Its’ collections and services may be

intended for use by people who choose not

to—or cannot afford to—purchase an

extensive collection themselves, who need

material no individual can reasonably be

expected to have, or who require

professional assistance with their research.

In the words of Dr. Ranganathan

“Libraries are not mere store houses, they

are rich springs from which knowledge

flows out to irrigate the wide field of

education and culture.”

3. WIDER ROLE OF LIBRARY AS AN

SOCIAL INSTITUTION

Library as a social institution is entrusted

with the responsibility of collecting,

organizing, preserving and disseminating

knowledge. Due to phenomenal growth in

information at an exponential rate, it

becomes difficult for everyone to have all

the information with them (Brinxmat

2014)6

. There is no doubt that Internet has

made easy to acquire the desired

information. But everything is not free on

the Internet. Google Books took on the

task of digitizing millions of books from

the world’s largest libraries. It successfully

digitized the sum of human knowledge,

but unlikely sum of contemporary authors

and publishers opposed it and not allowed

their work to be freely accessible on the

Internet. On the other side, contents on the

Internet are not static they are changeable

in nature.

Libraries are still the best option for the

research communities to access all the

information with them. Libraries subscribe

a wild variety of information resources for

their users and make them accessible free

of cost. It has been seen a tremendous

growth in printing and publishing,

resulting in millions and millions of titles.

The cost of scholarly literature is very high

and is increasing 10% to 20% annually. It

has become very difficult for an individual

oreven a group of individual to access all

the information in their field. No library,

howsoever rich, can afford to acquire all

that is being published even in the very

narrow field of its specialisation. Library

by collaborating with other libraries

procures the required documents to meet

their users’ needs of information.

4. INNOVATIVE LIBRARY

SERVICES AND RESOURCES

Many valuable resources are available in

the library, such as books (fiction, non- fiction and reference), rare books,

manuscripts, periodicals, newspapers,

films, maps, prints, documents, microform,

CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blu-ray

Discs, e-books, audiobooks, databases, and

other formats. These days’ libraries are

finding new and innovative way to extend

their collections to better serve their users.

In addition to providing materials, libraries

also provide the services of librarians who

are experts at finding and organizing

information and at interpreting information

needs. Libraries often provide quiet areas

for studying, and they also often offer

common areas to facilitate group study and

collaboration. Libraries often provide

public facilities for access to their

electronic resources and the Internet.

Modern libraries are increasingly being

redefined as places to get unrestricted

access to information in many formats and

Page 3 of 11

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 06

July 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 227

from many sources. They are extending

services beyond the physical walls of a

building, by providing material accessible

by electronic means, and by providing the

assistance of librarians in navigating and

analysing very large amounts of

information with a variety of digital tools.

Libraries provide training for literacy and

information finding skills, using both print

and electronic resources. It facilitates

access to resources outside the collection

when necessary through referral and inter

library loan.

5. LITERATURE REVIEW

Haji Aghajani and others8

(2009) carried

out a survey on ‘Library resources and

Services use for study by students of

medical Sciences in Semnan University of

Medical Sciences and Health Services,

2006-07’. The study attempted to evaluate

use of information resources and library

services by students in Semnan University

of Medical Sciences and Health Services.

Devendra Kumar and Rajkumar Singh9

(2009) have examined the ‘Use of services

by the users of National Science Library

(NSL), New Delhi, India’. This study

demonstrates and elaborates various

aspects of NSL collections, utilization of

the available resources, frequency and

purposes of visit, user satisfaction within

NSL services and information about

documents.

Zainab10

(2001) carried out a study on

‘Library Resources and Services and

Publication Productivity’, which represent

the perceived adequacy of library

resources for research. The study reveals

that the formal channels found to be more

useful in providing information needed for

research, the various methods used to keep

abreast with current research literature, the

problems faced while obtaining

information required for research with

publication productivity of 83 academic

engineers and 239 academic scientists

from the University of Malaya and

National University of Malaysia.

Devendra Kumar and others

11

(2010) have

examined the expectations of faculty

members and research scholars towards

library resources and services at Sardar

Vallabhbhai Patel University of

Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar

Pradesh, India. It analyzes the various

aspects of library collection usage,

frequency and purposes of library visits,

and user satisfaction of library services. It

also relates major problems that hinder

faculty members and research scholars

from using the library.

6. OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the study is to find

out the users’ awareness about the

resources and services provided by the PU

Extension library, and also to know about

its utilization. Besides, some other

objectives are:

 To know the purpose of users to visit

library.

 To find out frequency of users’ visit

and time utilized in the library.

 To explore salient features of the

library that invite users to visit and use

it.

 To identify various problems of users

while using the library.

 To know the satisfaction level of users

for various facilities provided by

Extension library.

 To suggest measures for the

improvement of Library resources and

services

7. ABOUT PANJAB UNIVERSITY

EXTENSION LIBRARY, LUDHIANA

The Panjab University Extension Library

is outcome of the joint effort of the Panjab

University Chandigarh, University Grant

Commission and Indian Wheat Loan

Education Exchange Programme of US

Embassy. Late 1959, a UGC Committee

with the representatives of Panjab