Users’ awareness, perceptions and usage of Makerere library services in the main and selected branch libraries

Abstract

Academic libraries have a mandate of enhancing teaching and research missions of their parent institutions through provision of library services. This paper shares findings of a study which investigated users‟ awareness, perceptions and usage of Makerere University Library (MakLib) Services in the Main Library and selected branch Libraries. The study adopted a qualitative approach. The researcher interviewed 94 in total; 54 users were from the Main Library, 21 were from the CEES library, while 19 were from Sir Albert Cook Medical Library. The interview schedule consisted of both open and closed questions to enable the participants to express their views and answer the why and how questions. The findings from the study indicated that major category of library users are undergraduate students; that more users visit the Main Library compared to the other two branch libraries; showed a good rating of the quality of services provided by MakLib; as well as a good rating of MakLib staff. The rate of awareness of some Library services was however rated low, yet Usage of library and information services has a direct linkage to awareness of users about those services. To address some of the issues raised by the findings, this study recommended further promotion and marketing of library services using diverse approaches in order to enhance users‟ awareness and increase Usage of all library services; continuous improvement of the end-user training programmes and ensuring that there are sufficient networked computers with fast Internet connectivity.