A survey on the library usage of University undergraduates: A study based on University of Kelaniya

Abstract

A library is a store of knowledge. As the mankind, knowledge is an essential thing to all of us. An undergraduate is a seeker who dives the knowledge-sea. Using library is a part of seeking knowledge to their activities. Therefore, the objective of this survey was, identifying the library usage of university undergraduates. 80 undergraduates were selected from 4 faculties including both male and female by using stratified sampling method. The data were obtained by using a questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed by using the SPSS software. According to the analyzed data, there was 53.75% who use the library according to their needs only. And 18.75% use once a week, 15% use daily and 12.5% use once a month. According to the data, number of books have borrowed last semester, there were 35% undergraduates who had borrowed 10-20 books. And 33.75% had borrowed less than 10 books. 25% had borrowed more than 20 books. And 6.25% undergraduates hadn’t borrowed books. According to the primary data the reason for decreasing library usage is the usage of other sources of knowledge. The internet usage was in 34%. And 20% had used internet, newspapers and mass media. According to the satis faction level, strongly happy level of lending section was in 12.5%, reference section was in 8.8%, articles section was in 3.8%, research section was in 1.3%. In thesis collection and others sections anyone were not in strongly happy level. If the sections of library are well organized and comprehensive, it will help to increase the percentage of undergraduates who use the library for their activities