A study on the user needs in sciences and medicine in the library of Universiti Brunei Darussalam : with a view to improving its services

This paper presents a pan' of the study' that was carried out in the library of Universiiy Brunei Darussalam to assess the user needs in Sciences and Medicine. The main focus in this paper has been on the pat? of the study relating to services of the llbrary. The targeted users were undergraduates, postgraduates and academic staff of the Facufty of Science and fnstitute of Medicine. Survey method included interviews and a hardcopy questionnaire that was administered during the first semester of 2005/2006. Data obtained through the questionnaire were coded and subjected to ANOVA , Descriptive statistics and Cross-tabulation using SPSS Version 12. Findings revealed Journal of the University Librarians. .. .. . . (Vol. l I), 2007 that the users who participated in the survey, while showing their satisfaction in some aspects, expressed concern about several other issues relating to the library services. The University Brunei Darussalam is a relatively young university which was established in 1985. Today the University accommodates more than 300 academic staff and 2,800 students in seven faculties, namely Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Economics and Policies Studies, Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien lnstitute of Islamic Studies, Science, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah lnstitute of Education, Academy of Brunei Studies and lnstitute of Medicine. The major functions of the University Brunei Darussalam (UBD) are teaching, learning, research and community service. The Library is literally the 'nerve centre' of the University as it is situated in a central location to all the faculties. It functions as a fully automated library equipped with modern facilities and comprises of a collection of books and other materials (including audio-visuals and electronic resources) nearing 400,000 valumes and a collection of 254 titles of journals. Its total membership of 4220 includes academic staff (majority being expatriates), postgraduates and undergraduates (includes foreign students), administrative staff and general public as external users. It is inevitable that user behaviour and expectations in any library to through significant changes due to the altered information environment in today's world. Due to this reason library user surveys have become widespread in academic libraries and have often been used as a tool to assess service quality and user needs and user satisfaction. The author during her sabbatical year as a research fellow at UBD library carried out the present study and it is an attempt to evaluate the user needs in Sciences and Medicine of the library. Instead of embarking on a survey in mass scale involving entire university community it was decided to evaluate user needs Journal of the University Librarians ..... . . (Vol. l l ) , 2007 of the library only in the areas of Sciences and Medicine. The reason for this decision was mainly due to the rapid expansion of the knowledge base in these two inter-related fields than in any other discipline. Although the membership of the library includes administrative staff and external members as well, it was decided to focus only on the three user groups: academic staff, undergraduates and postgraduates of the Faculty of Science and Institute of Medicine of the university. A l aspects of the library services except community services were investigated in the survey. Community services are more dealt with external membership including general public. Objectives of the study are to identify needs of the targeted library users in the Sciences and Medicine; to determine the extent of satisfaction of these users with reference to the different services offered by the library ; to identify the deficiencies, as viewed by the users, and thereby to improve the quality of services offered by the Library. For the purpose of this article, only the part of the survey that dealt with user needs in terms of library services will be discussed

that the users who participated in the survey, while showing their satisfaction in some aspects, expressed concern about several other issues relating to the library services.The Library is literally the 'nerve centre' of the University as it is situated in a central location to all the faculties.It functions as a fully automated library equipped with modern facilities and comprises of a collection of books and other materials (including audio-visuals and electronic resources) nearing 400,000 valumes and a collection of 254 titles of journals.Its total membership of 4220 includes academic staff (majority being expatriates), postgraduates and undergraduates (includes foreign students), administrative staff and general public as external users.
It is inevitable that user behaviour and expectations in any library to through significant changes due to the altered information environment in today's world.Due to this reason library user surveys have become widespread in academic libraries and have often been used as a tool to assess service Community services are more dealt with external membership including general public.Objectives of the study are to identify needs of the targeted library users in the Sciences and Medicine; to determine the extent of satisfaction of these users with reference to the different services offered by the library ; to identify the deficiencies, as viewed by the users, and thereby to improve the quality of services offered by the Library.
For the purpose of this article, only the part of the survey that dealt with user needs in terms of library services will be discussed

Methodology
A literature survey on previous studies on assessing user needs of the library at UBD and elsewhere was carried out.Some reports on surveys carried out to investigate user needs in university libraries are found in literat~re2-~.Due to the sample size chosen for the present study, a paperbased survey instrument; a hardcopy questionnaire was deemed most appropriate.It was decided to hold prior interviews with selected users to collect preliminary information before construction of the questionnaire.
Twenty five academic staff members and six undergraduates were picked randomly and were interviewed to collect information on their needs and expectations as users of the library.Interviews were held during the period The questionnaire consisted of twenty-two main questions and several subsidiary questions, which were all close-ended.Provision was, however, made at the end of questionnaire for the respondents to provide their views, as free text comments and suggestions, on any aspect of the library.Many respondents used this opportunity to express their views on the library.
The same questionnaire was administered to all three user groups.
Respondents were asked to tick off an appropriate box in all the closeended questions.Adequate space was provided for respondents to write comments.A covering letter was attached to the questionnaire explaining the objective and the purpose of the study.

Sample:
Due to the small size of user groups in certain subject areas of Faculty of

Suwey response and representativeness:
The response rate of the survey for each category is shown in the Figure 3.2 (in Section 3.2).The percentage of respondents in the category of undergraduates is much higher than the other categories.This is perhaps due to the manner in which the questionnaires were administered and collected (during a practical class or a lecture).Thus it is seen that the percentage of respondents in the undergraduate group well represented the population in this category while the percentage of respondents in the academic staff can be considered as a reasonable representation of the group.Due to the fact that a majority of the postgraduate students who have been using the library were not available for the survey, it was inevitable that the group was under-represented by its survey respondents.
The Institute of Medicine has a small population of both staff and students.
And as such the subject samples for the survey were very small.There were no postgraduate students in the Institute of Medicine.

Statistical analysis:
Responses received through the questionnaires were categorised, coded and entered in the computer for use in statistical analysis7.8 .The data thus obtained, were analysed using the software package SPSS (version 12).
Normal distribution curve was plotted for data relevant to each question, before deciding on the appropriate statistical analytical procedure.

Survey results and major findings
For the purpose of the article survey results pertaining only to library services will be discussed here.

Interviews:
The following is a synopsis of the views presented and comments made by the respondents belonging to different categories during the interviews.
Majority of the academic staff members who were interviewed stated that they were not satisfied with the present library facilities.
All six undergraduates who were interviewed were somewhat satisfied with the present set-up with reservations in some areas.
All 25 academic staff members had similar opinions about the usefulness of the online databases.They appreciated the fact that the library is taking steps to improve the collection of on-line resources.However, they were not satisfied with the subject coverage of the available on-line databases and about the connectivity.In addition, they requested for awareness programmes to educate the users about available electronic resources in Medicine.
Academic staff members of the Institute of Medicine commended on the database OVID; however, they complained about the accessibility of the databases.At present the system allows only two users at a given time, which is not satisfactory.Use of online facilities is hampered by the poor connectivity of the university network (system is very slow).As such, usage of lnternet is very limited.This situation has affected the research activities of faculty of science immensely.
Inter-library-loan system needs to be improved, as it is a very slow process.It takes a very long time to receive articles requested through this system.
All the staff members suggested that the library should cater to research needs of the university.
The electronic system of the library lacks effective searching facilities.
Information displayed on certain queries regarding library transaction is not correct.
A few glances at any shelf in the book collection will reveal books that are misplaced.Insufficient care is taken when re-shelving books and no casual checks of the stacks are carried out to correct this.
It takes a long time to receive a book that has been ordered through the library.
Books on long-term loan cannot be renewed on-line.It is a waste of time to bring all the books to the library only for renewal.
Library takes a tong time to re-shelve the returned books; therefore, one cannot find certain books on the shelves despite OPAC indicating their availability.
Curriculum resource room is disorganized.Finding books there is difficult.
Students can only borrow books for two weeks, which discourages some of them from borrowing at all, since they have to choose between carrying renewals around them every few days, or risking overdue book fines.The loan period should be one-month minimum.

Questionnaire -Main findings in summary:
The total number of questionnaires administered to three categories of user groups, undergraduates, postgraduates and academic staff were 378 in total.The response rates of different categories are shown in Figure 3 Analysis of coded data using SPSS revealed that total number of respondents were 300 whiie 86% of this represented undergraduates, 2% postgraduates and 12% represented academic staff.In the Faculty of Science though the number of postgraduates was 25, at the time of the survey, many of them had just left the faculty after completion of the course.
Due to the very small sample number, it will be difficult to reach any general conclusions regarding the user needs of postgraduates from this study.As such, the study was focused mainly on undergraduates and academic staff-The number of respondents was' not large enough specially for academic staff and postgraduates to examine the degree of variation within groups by Journal of the University Librarians... ... .(Vol.l l), 2007 subjects and for undergraduates within groups by class year.Further it was not attempted to examine the variations among demographic characteristics.A summary of the findings of the data analysis is given under the theme of each question in the following section.A detailed breakdown of the analysis of the survey results is available to interested parties on requested from the author.

Average frequency of library usage by the readers
Responses to this question were analysed in two different ways; by profession (whether staff or student) and by whether or not expatriate or local lecturer/student.Analysis of data with ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference in the pattern of the library usage by the three user groups mainly between undergraduates and academic staff (P value at 0.000 and F 2 . 2 3 ~ 16.751).
The mean values of the responses lied at 'once a week' for undergraduates and at 'Once in two weeks' for postgraduates and academic staff.Nearly 67% of postgraduates have used the library only once a month.However, due to the fact that only very small sample of population was surveyed in this user-group (postgraduates), the results would not support any concluding remarks.
There was a variation in the pattern of library use, between expatriate lecturerlstudent and local lectureristudent.The mean value of the responses was more towards the latter between 'once a week' and 'once in two weeks' for expatriate lecturers and at 'once a month' for local lecturers.
According to the results of the analysis of data with ANOVA the difference in mean values implied a significant difference at the level P=0.05, in the pattern of the usage of the library by expatriate and local lecturers.The

The
University Brunei Darussalam is a relatively young university which was established in 1985.Today the University accommodates more than 300 academic staff and 2,800 students in seven faculties, namely Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Economics and Policies Studies, Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien lnstitute of Islamic Studies, Science, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah lnstitute of Education, Academy of Brunei Studies and lnstitute of Medicine.The major functions of the University Brunei Darussalam (UBD) are teaching, learning, research and community service.
quality and user needs and user satisfaction.The author during her sabbatical year as a research fellow at UBD library carried out the present study and it is an attempt to evaluate the user needs in Sciences and Medicine of the library.Instead of embarking on a survey in mass scale involving entire university community it was decided to evaluate user needs Journal of the University Librarians ..... . .(Vol.l l ) , 2007 of the library only in the areas of Sciences and Medicine.The reason for this decision was mainly due to the rapid expansion of the knowledge base in these two inter-related fields than in any other discipline.Although the membership of the library includes administrative staff and external members as well, it was decided to focus only on the three user groups: academic staff, undergraduates and postgraduates of the Faculty of Science and Institute of Medicine of the university.A l aspects of the library services except community services were investigated in the survey.
30/06/05-30107105.Prior appointments were obtained from the academic staff for interviews that lasted for 20-30 minutes.The academic staff Journal of the University Librarians... ... .(Vol.l I), 2007 members were selected to represent all the departments of Faculty of Science and Institute of Medicine.The same set of questions was asked from each user.Undergraduates were randomly selected for interviews while they were in the library.Interviews were transcribed.The information in the interview transcripts were later reviewed and classified in order to identify the various issues to be addressed in the questionnaire.The survey was carried out during September 2005, which was the first semester of the academic year 2005/2006 in UBD.A pre-notification of one week was given through e-mail to academic staff regarding the survey before leaving the questionnaire in the pigeonhole of each member.The Questionnaires were handed over personally to all the postgraduates.With the permission and cooperation of the academic staff members in charge, the questionnaires were administered to undergraduates during their classes just before a lecture or a practical class and collected it after the class, allowing them about 15 minutes to answer the questionnaire.Sufvey instrument:Based on the information gathered from the interviews, the questionnaire was designed to obtain the information pertaining to the following: Importance and awareness of the library services Frequency of library use, The library collection, relevance of library materials, use of electronic resources, ease of access, What documents are most important, Unmet needs How satisfied the users are about the library staff, Effectiveness of the facilities and the users' perception of environment etc. Journal of the University Librarians ...... .(Vol.111, 2007 A demographic component also was included in the questionnaire.
Science and lnstitute of Medicine, it was decided to use the entire student and academic staff population as samples for the study.As such, all 8 academic staff members from the Institute of Medicine and 75 academic staff members from the Faculty of Science were included in the study.The questionnaire was administered to 280 students from Faculty of Science and 7 students from the lnstitute of Medicine.First year undergraduates were excluded from the survey due to the very short period of their library use.Only the second, third and fourth year undergraduates were included in the survey.All eight postgraduates that the researcher could contact at the time of the survey participated in it.AH of them were from the Faculty of Science.About 20 other postgraduate students had already left the university after completion of their studies just prior to the administration of the questionnaire.
Consequently, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with LSD , Bonferroni corrections and Post Hoc Test, and Cross-tabulation procedures were carried out with each question as appropriate.Journal of the University Librarians.. . ... .(Vol.11).2007 Problems/suggestions regarding library matters: Some of the more frequent comments made by the survey sample are listed below Journal of the University Librarians.. . . . . .(Vol.l l), 2007 Response rate by category of the user group.