Who is library user

For motor-impaired students, libraries need to be seen as accommodating places. Academic libraries can do some things to make resources more accessible for these students besides installing wheelchair ramps and bathroom stalls. The San Jose State University Library has replaced their self-service photocopying machines with models that can be used more easily by disabled students Pontau ,5.

They have also appointed a librarian whose responsibilities include acting as an advocate for the Disabled Students Association and as liaison with other library departments. There is a service policy in place that makes a page program available for retrieving books off high shelving; special workshops; and a written library policy that focuses on attitudinal barriers Pontau ,7. The staff need to be aware of the problems and obstacles that these students face each day, and become more sensitive and accepting.

Other libraries offer lowered counters, easily opened turnstiles, special elevators, special seating to accommodate wheel chairs, and the ability to retrieve materials by telephone Goltz , Needs assessments should be commonplace to discover the level of services that disabled students require Huang , One segment of the disabled population is particularly vulnerable to not receiving the services they need in an academic library, and they are the deaf students. Deaf students do not have an obvious disability, and encounter many problems when dealing with people who can hear Mularski , They generally need extensive instruction in library skills since many hearing-impaired students have lower levels of knowledge in the area, and experience frustration when using some library tools that require language to be used easily Mularski , In Academic Library Service to Deaf Students: Survey and Recommendations , Carol Mularski asserts that very few librarians have the skills to meet the needs of deaf students, and improvements can be made that are low in cost Mularski , There should be a liaison agreement between library staff, and the disabled student services agency Mularski , This would provide some insight into the areas of library service they find lacking.

Another essential requirement would be to have a number of the reference librarians learn how to finger spell, considered an easy medium to master Mularski , It would be very symbolic, and demonstrate to these students that they are considered important, while also giving them the means to communicate with people who can influence whether they will get an education or not. Voice amplification equipment, and staff members who know sign language are also desirable additions to integrate deaf students Goltz , Without some way of communicating with library staff, deaf students may choose not to use the library as much as their peers Huang , Many other groups use academic libraries on occasion, including business people doing database searches; visiting faculty; members of industries, checking government documents; and members of the community, researching a multitude of subjects that depend upon the collection parameters Dow , How much service these non-university user groups get depends upon the information and depth of interaction they require, and how busy the librarians are with students and faculty.

Mary E. Boulanger writes that those decisions are often based on fiscal restraints, and many are referred to the local public library Boulanger , Students from other institutions can be serviced at academic libraries, unless "sheer numbers keep us from serving our own students and faculty" Boulanger , A large group of students from outside the university setting that commonly have special needs are the local high school students.

Largely, this population is falling through the service cracks because academic libraries are so strapped for resources and staff time that proper attention to these students is an impossibility. With declining enrolments in schools, and the large cuts directed at education budgets, school resource centers have experienced a downturn Miller , Students also realize the speed with which they can do their research if they use an academic library in their community.

In addition, with the growing stress placed on high school students to achieve and compete for shrinking scholarship pools, the pressure to produce better quality work requires them to seek other resources. Academic librarians need to work with school principals and teachers to resolve the problems and to decide on how best to give high school students bibliographic instruction; how to teach the students to behave in an academic library; and how to best access the library catalogues and databases Miller , This is the next generation of students coming into the system, and if they can acquire basic library and research skills before embarking upon a university education, half the battle will be won.

Some key strategies need to be put in place if libraries are serious about integrating special needs students into the academic system.

First, library mission statements should include a policy on how library staff and reference librarians, in particular, will service user groups overall, but especially the student groups who are somehow disadvantaged Huang , Having these kinds of things in writing helps to direct how library staff should conduct themselves. Secondly, and concerning all user groups on some level, are the attitudinal barriers which can create unnecessary frustrations in university libraries Dequin , In a study of academic librarians, Dequin, Schilling, and Huang found that fifty percent of them have attitudes toward disabled persons that can be considered positive Dequin , This means that the other fifty percent need training to become more open-minded, less fearful, and more caring.

In Stock. Creating a Framework for Dissertation Prepar The dissertation processes across various discipli Data Visualization and Statistical Literacy Data visualization has emerged as a serious schola Contemporary Approaches to Dissertation Deve Uncovering the best methods for conducting and wri Handbook of Research on Scholarly Publishing For faculty to advance their careers in higher edu E-Reference Context and Discoverability in L Without question, reference collections have chang Planning and Implementing Resource Discovery Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, Second The paper aims to investigate current library instruction programs to help business students make better use of library resources and improve their information.

For this study, 90 business students from three different majors at the Faculty of Business and Economics, the University of Hong Kong were invited to participate in the online survey for comparison. The findings of this study suggest that the subjects, in general, recognized the importance of library user instruction.

However, when the subjects encountered difficulties in information searching, they preferred to use search engines such as Google and seek help from their classmates. The results of this study show that there were distinctive differences in library usage and views toward library instruction among students of three different majors. This study sheds light on the feasible actions of academic libraries to enhance library user instruction services and improve the IL skills among business students.

Although there is much research about the library instruction of academic libraries, scant research focuses on library usage and views toward library instruction of business students, especially on the comparison among different business majors. The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Qianxiu Liu, who worked on the original version of the questionnaire with us, and Kit-man Chan Business Subject Librarian at the University of Hong Kong , who kindly provided useful information about the target student groups — their library usage patterns, in relations to the range of library services provided by the University of Hong Kong Libraries.

Zhang, Y.