News Paper Reading Habits among DSM Arts College Abhone: A Case Study

Newspaper has collected information from all direction. It helps to improve reading habits, increase knowledge, skills and awareness about the world. In the information era, the main purpose of education is to train individuals who are able to think, express it appropriately, criticize, do research, put the knowledge into practice and convey this to others. Newspapers are the store house of knowledge and provide knowledge of different segments of the society. Reading newspaper daily is one of the best ways to keep up to date with the ever advancing world. Newspaper can be the part of good study habits for students in any area of specialization. Newspaper brings us a selection of news from around the world. Newspaper can also act as platform for the readers and writers to express their ideas, views, on any aspects. Thus, newspaper reading habit is essential for college students to be more responsive and enlightened citizens. Reading habits and the usage of library have an important role in building a modern society.

DSM Arts College Abhone was established in 1997. It is located in Kalwan Tehesil Dist, Nashik,and affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University ,Pune, Maharashtra. College runs Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in Arts discipline. College is situated in tribal and hilly areas and providing educational opportunities to tribal people in and around the Abhona town. DSM Arts college library is on its way to become an outstanding learning resource centre catering to the ever growing and uncompromising information and intellectual requirement of the students, facuilty. Library strives for high quality services. Reference service have been specially planned to meet the growing requirements of library members. Reprographic facility is also provided to the members. Online internet access is available free to faculty.

Begun and Ramesh (1991) investigated factors inhibiting public library use. They analyzed responses gathering from the users of the central library, Mysore, India. Reading interest seemed to be different among different age groups. Mellon (1990) surveyed the leisure reading choice of rural students and found that their reasons for leisure reading were for entertainment for acquiring information. Journals and newspapers were found to be the most performed reading materials of students. It has also found that informational reading was the main purpose for adult reading and their most popular books are adventures crime, social problems, novels, politics and sports. Somsong (1999) looked at reading habits were discussed, along with the role of local institutes or organization in helping libraries promote reading. Bndaka (2007) explored the use of newspaper articles to develop students reading skills in high schools. Platt (1986) reviewed several selected students on reading performances of adolescents, and calculated that adolescents do read extensively in books, journals and newspapers.

The following are the major objectives.- 1] To find out the first language of students. 2] To examine the time spent out to read the newspapers.

4] To identify the favorite newspaper in Marathi and in English. 5] To identify which section of newspaper are read mostly by the students. 6] To identify the barriers faced by the students in reading newspaper in the college library.

For the present study, a questionnaire method has used for data collection. A random sampling technique has been adopted to select students of DSM Arts College, Abhone. The researcher has prepared well structured questionnaire for collecting the primary data from the users of college. Total 130 questionnaire were distributed among students to collect relevant data.119 filled responses were received back with 91.53% response rate.

The data has been collected by different methods are analyzed and interpreted and same presented in the following tables.

From above table it is observed that 47.05% of respondents are males and 52.94% are females. Female respondents actively participate in the survey. It shows that the increasing role of females in reading habits.

Table II shows that 65.54% of the respondents who are undergraduate students, and 34.45% respondents are postgraduate students.

From the above table it is observed that 80.27% students use Marathi newspaper whereas 19.94% students use English newspaper.

The above table shows that nearly 41% of students spend less than one hour for reading, 46% students spend one to two hours and 11.86% students spend more than two hours for reading newspaper.

The above table indicates that 44.83% students like reading newspaper at home, 34.5% students like reading in college library, 11.22% students like reading in public library.

From the above table 95.57% students like to read Loksatta newspaper, followed by Sakal 91.85%, Lokmat 91.14%. English newspaper, Times of India readers are only 13.14%, So from the above table, researcher understands that students are not more interested in reading English newspaper.

Table VII shows that most of the respondents prefer to read editorial, sports, health, and educational news and politics sections.

The above table shows that 45.60 % students like to read newspaper to improve their general knowledge, 49.32% read newspaper for getting information, 48.61% students like to read for preparation for competitive examination.

1. The majority of the students read newspapers in Marathi or English language. 2. The number of students who read newspaper is one to two hours only. 3. The students who love to read newspaper gain information and preparation for competitive examination. 4. Most of the students read newspapers at home and in college library. 5. The most popular newspaper among the college students is Loksatta. 6. Students prefer to read editorial sections followed by health and education.

Reading newspapers habit plays a vital role in the mental growth and development of individuals. A newspaper keeps us informed of what is taking place around us in the world. In today‘s highly competitive necessary information, knowledge and insight which will give them the much needed edge for being successful not only in competitive exams, job interviews, but also in their professional and social life. Therefore the library professionals must create more awareness of such news sources. Libraries must ensure that the students have access to wide variety of newspapers, so as to enable the students to read their preferred newspapers and enhance their knowledge base, which can help them to be more productive in their academics and lead a responsible life in the society. This study helps librarians understand the importance of newspapers and improve the services related to newspapers.

Arulraj, R. and Viji (2008). News Paper Reading Habit among the Professional College staff Members for various points of Views: A Survey. Balsubramaniam P., Bala S., and Marichamy A. (2014). A study on Newspaper Reading Habit of G.V.N. College, Kovilpatti, Tamilnadu : Indian Journal of Information Sources and services, Vol.4, Issue 1, pp. 9-12. Bandka , Eleni (2007). Using Newspaper articles to develop students reading skills in senior high school. The Reading Matrix, 2007, 7(1) Begum, Khaiser Jahan and Ramesh, C.P. (1991). Factors inhibiting the public library use: A case study of City Central Library , Mysore. Library Review, 1991, pp. 323-350. Devendra, Kumar, Singh Rajkumar and Jamal Ahmad Siddiqui (2011). Newspaper Reading Habits of University Students : A case study of Chaudhari Charan Singh University , Library Philosophy and Practice. Medar Anand S. and Kachakkanavar, A.Y. (2015). Reading Habits by the college students of Karnataka Science College, Dharwad : A case study : International Journal of Enhanced Research in Educational Development ,Vol-3, Issue 4, July- Aug. 2015, pp. 64-69. Shivakumar N. and, Tamilselvan N. (2015). Newspaper Reading Habits of college students: A case study of Kalaignar Karunanidhi Institute of Technology. International Journal of Library Science and Research (IJLSR) Vol.5, Issue 2, pp. 31-36.

Framework. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET). Vol.2, Issue: 2, pp. 16-24. Thanuskodi S. (2011). Reading Habits among Library and Information Science of Annamalai University: A Survey, International Journal of Science Education, 3(2), pp. 79-83.

Librarian DSM Arts College Abhone, Nashik, Maharashtra