Promoting Library Services in Colleges

by Balwant Singh Rajodiya*,

- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540

Volume 15, Issue No. 9, Oct 2018, Pages 875 - 880 (6)

Published by: Ignited Minds Journals


ABSTRACT

“Library is a medium for the contemporary alternate of thoughts, no longer only for completed accumulated awareness to be set down imperishably for posterity. It is way of talking to each other - crucial talking, however tentative speak me though. Eventually, whilst the exhilaration is basically long gone and the problem all wrapped up, then for the maximum component it will appear in books that are treatises.” Library is a provider group. Library services are one of the most extensively used and standard within the modern-day world. Academic community especially in a university utilizes library offerings for research and teaching purposes. Academic paintings are supported by library. Therefore, library is rightly seemed because the coronary heart of an educational institution. The library collection serves as an crucial resource in education, paintings, and undertaking of millions of human beings. Earlier libraries were considered merely storehouses of understanding, and the librarian a custodian of the collection.

KEYWORD

library services, colleges, library collection, academic institution, research, teaching purposes, academic community, knowledge, resource, librarian

INTRODUCTION

Libraries, on account that a long time, have stored materials that enable thoughts, knowledge and reports to be surpassed on from era to technology. Libraries build collections tailored to the wishes and desires of the organizations they serve. For instance, instructional libraries, build collections for college kids, teachers and researchers. This collection is systematically organized with the aid of the library for use through the users. The library collection serves as an important aid in training, work, and undertaking of tens of millions of people. Earlier libraries have been considered merely storehouses of know-how, and the librarian a custodian of the collection. Users had been expected to apply the libraries on their own. Librarians concentrated extra on the collection improvement and preservation of the library instead of selling its use. Present day libraries are exclusive. These are taken into consideration as academic and carrier establishments. Here librarians now not best organize the gathering; however offer assistance to library users in numerous approaches, to assist studying, hobby and different vocation associated sports. The help and offerings supplied by using the librarians may be extensively grouped as reference and data offerings. These services sell the use of library fabric, connect the users with the library assets and meet the facts wishes of the users. In this lesson, you'll study reference and records services provided by way of different styles of libraries and want and significance of those services.

LIBRARY SERVICES

To meet facts needs of the customers, libraries provide a number services, which might be widely called Reference and Information Services. Reference services are involved with direct non-public help to the person in search of facts. It covers direct offerings along with assistance to the person in the use of the library and its equipment, assistance in searching and finding documents, equipped reference and lengthy variety reference service, literature seek and compilation of bibliography, supporting in research and many others and indirect offerings inclusive of selection, employer and upkeep of library fabric for reference provider, and other responsibilities of reference section which include keeping a file of reference queries, practice of exposure fabric, assessment of reference section and so on. Information services are furnished in anticipation of diverse desires of the users of libraries. Current attention services, indexing and abstracting service, etc. Fall underneath information offerings. At times, those offerings are furnished on demands from the customers. In literature the phrases reference carrier and facts service are used synonymously. Some specialists refer them as special kinds of services. The variations are enumerated in the Table 1 under:-

Reference and data services can also be broadly grouped into responsive records services and anticipatory statistics offerings. Responsive information services, also referred to as passive records offerings, are provided in response to the requests from the library customers. Anticipatory data offerings, additionally known as active statistics offerings are furnished in anticipation of the wishes of the library customers. In this digital age, educational libraries are dealing with a ramification of challenges together with ongoing price range cuts, software of new information technology, converting inner and external environments, and converting needs of research and coaching. A managerial device supporting libraries to face challenges now and in the future is powerful promoting and marketing. Today, educational libraries are not the handiest desire for college kids, school, personnel and other customers to go to for records. To attract clients, generate non-user awareness, and lift cognizance of to be had services and assets, libraries want to locate ways to sell services and sources to clients as effectively as possible. As such, promotional techniques are used to convey the provision and cost of offerings and sources to target markets and must be designed to purpose library users and non-users to act (Webreck Alman, 2017).

Promotional Approaches

Promotional gear that can be used by educational libraries to promote their services and assets include: virtual media, along with the library's Website, e-mail lists, blogs and podcasts; print materials, inclusive of posters, handouts and giveaways; activities inclusive of orientation excursions and workshops; and other tools inclusive of library publications, contests, brochures, direct mail, Web 2.0 packages and presentations (Fisher and Pride, 2016; Mathews, 2009; Webreck Alman, 2017). A good Website helps to bring offerings and assets together in a completely unique way, due to the fact it's far a right away hyperlink among the library and its particular customers (for instance students and teachers) and the offerings it's far looking for to promote. It additionally gives a channel for conversation with promote events and programmers, which are promotional gear in themselves. Newsletters can introduce new developments in addition to highlight modern-day services. Target audiences can be effortlessly and effectively targeted via electronic mail lists and the Internet. These offerings are value effective, as they require little investment in resources and attain the meant consumer directly. This study examined how Indian educational librarians perceive strategies used to promote their services and sources and the factors influencing their perceptions of the particular approaches used, to offer a higher knowledge of their attitudes and perspectives toward those strategies. Librarians can also use the outcomes to mirror on the effectiveness of those techniques, to stability the load of the elements' impacts and the better to understand diverse merchandising strategies. This will allow them to sell instructional library offerings and sources extra efficaciously inside the future.

Financial assistance to University and college libraries

Financial assistance is given to universities and colleges including central universities state Universities Deemed universities and Government and affiliated schools which receive presents for building up libraries to be able to meet the needs of the pupil‘s instructors and studies pupils. The fee affords good sized presents for the purchase of books and journals. For other infrastructural facilities additionally like library buildings furnishings and system presents arc given in every 5- yr plan length it also added a scheme of e-book bank in faculties and universities via presenting grants to gather multiple copies of costly text books encouraged in all of the disciplines. The goal of this scheme become to offer text books to terrible needy and deserving students for domestic have a look at on long term basis by means of charging nominal deposits. This scheme is not in operation by UGC aid.

Curriculum Development committee (CDC) on library and information science

The UGC constituted CDC on library and data technology in 1990 to restructure the guides of research. The committee in its hints framed suggestions for LIS schools covering admission coverage college students and college electricity instructional methodology coaching aids and application of records era tec. Besides it additionally constituted a committee called UGC panel in library and data technology to suggest the

Establishment of national information centres

The objective of organizing national data centres in specialized regions is to provide progressed get entry to to facts and to offer bibliographic help to teachers and studies scholars of their respective fields. 3 such centers have been set up and that they have evolved computer databases to render reference and data offerings, documentation offerings and contemporary focus services.

Establishment of Inflibnet

The UGC established an statistics and library network (INFLIBNET) programme with headquarters at Ahemadabad as a challenge of the inter university centre for astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCA), Pune in April 1991. The INFLIBNET programme targets at the status quo of a country wide network of libraries and data centers in establishments of higher mastering along with universities schools R & D establishments and country wide companies like CSIR, ICMR, ICSSR, ICAR, DOE, and many others. It is a pc-verbal exchange community of libraries and bibliographical records centres and is a co-operative community programme for pooling sharing and optimization of resources centers and offerings of libraries and records centres inside the college device as well as in the R & D complex. It presents get entry to to records to students academics and researchers in rendering various records and documentation services such as a) catalogue- based carrier b) database service e) report transport provider d) series development and e) communique – primarily based carrier.

Modernization of university libraries

Recent advances in statistics and conversation technology and its software have pressured the college libraries to computerize their services and connecting themselves to various community programmes like INFLIBNET a good way to offer speedy efficient and reliable computerized statistics provider to its customers. The UGC has additionally supplied unique financial help to central university libraries and other university libraries hooked up during previous few monetary years for updating their library centers. The primary goal turned into to computerize their library activities and connect them to INFLIBNET programmes. The utilization of the fund furnished for the reason is to meet the subsequent expenses. A) Purchase of computer device monitor, printer, terminals software etc. B) Computer, fixtures and electric fitting and air con. D) Appointment of statistics scientist E) Support for facts entry paintings. F) Purchase of books, journals, audio-visuals and their processing G) Data entry conversion (modernization) H) Staff education and I) Other contingencies and so on.

National Review Committee on University and College Libraries

The purpose of constituting this kind of committee is to review the utilization of presents to critical universities and some country college libraries of Rs. 2 crores and Rs. 50 lakhs respectively secondly to put together a standing report of university and university libraries in India, and thirdly to prepare a method plan/suggestions for the destiny for clean functioning of these college and university libraries.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1. Study on library services. 2. Study on Promotional Approaches.

STUDY FRAMEWORK

This take a look at is focused on the connection between the effective strategies that Indian academic librarians used to sell library offerings and sources and 3 varieties of predictors: demographics, human capital, and library variables.

Demographics check with age and sex. Human capital is 'an amalgam of factors which includes education, enjoy, schooling, intelligence, strength, paintings behavior, trustworthiness and initiative that have an effect on the price of a employee's marginal product' (Frank and Bernanke, 2017). For this observe, human capital consists of years at present role, training stage, variety of various positions, years of service, the formal look at of advertising and marketing and attendance at a advertising workshop inside the remaining 5 years. Library variables are made of the number of library branches, group of workers, and customers.

The results of a pilot study (Yi, Lodge and McCausland, 2013) validated that training degree, years in present positions, and wide variety of are massive relationships among schooling levels, years in present positions or number of library branches and the strategies used to sell library offerings and sources. It become also hypothesized that there aren't any big relationships between the techniques used and the predictors except for education level, years in present positions and number of library branches. One of the functions of this observe is to check the above hypotheses the usage of ordinal regressions.

METHODS

Population and Sample

The research respondents of this take a look at had been recruited from libraries in the 27 Indian universities. According to the 2011 statistics of the Council of Indian University Librarians, there have been 1,470 expert workforce in these universities. After obtaining seven-hundred instructional librarians' names and e mail addresses from Websites, random sampling becomes used to recruit the respondents. 200 randomly selected respondents had been invited to complete an internet survey. Following a pilot observe, 200 librarians had been dispatched a survey by using an introductory electronic mail to complete and go back within fifteen days. In order to attain greater responses, they had been additionally sent reminder e-mails. All participation turned into strictly voluntary. During the study, all the respondents worked and lived in Australia. The variety of librarians who completed and again surveys become 230 (57.5%).

Survey Design

In the primary phase, survey questions centered on 3 kinds of predictors: demographics (intercourse and age); human capital (schooling stage, years at gift function, years of provider, number of various positions, formal look at of advertising and marketing and workshop attendance on marketing in the final 5 years); and library variables (number of library branches, personnel, and shoppers). One of the principle survey questions asked how effective the strategies used to sell library offerings and resources had been, as perceived by means of the respondents. The strategies and procedures indexed blanketed virtual media (catalogues, e-mails, library Website, on line advertising, social media, Webcasts and Website announcements); print materials (advertisements, booklets, brochures, direct mail, flyers, giveaways, leaflets, newsletters, print advertising and posted guides); and events (school room education, reveals or shows, face-to-face activities, library excursions, one-to-one conversations, open homes, telephone, training periods and workshops).

VARIABLES AND MEASUREMENTS

The based variables had been the techniques and strategies indexed inside the Survey design phase. Dependent variables have been measured the use of ordinal variables with the rating scales: useless, really effective, effective, extra effective and only. Demographics, human capital, and library variables were 3 varieties of unbiased variables.

DATA ANALYSIS AND ANALYTICAL STRATEGIES

Descriptive content material evaluation (Sarantakos, 2015) changed into used to analyse the facts accumulated from open-ended responses. Descriptive information (chances) and inferential records (ordinal regression) had been used to examine the quantitative records. The fundamental method of this take a look at‘s analysis become ordinal regression, which became used to determine the relationships between a dependent variable with a couple of classes and greater than impartial variables. Dependent variables should be ordinal ones. However, unbiased variables can be categorical and non-stop variables.

In the tables, thresholds only stand for the response variables inside the ordered regressions and the edge coefficients aren't normally explained inside the findings. Log probability determines whether the independent variables included in a version offer the date an excellent in shape. -2 log likelihood is 'the made of -2 and the log chance of the null model and outfitted final version' and 'the probability of the version is used to check of whether or not all predictors‘ regression coefficients in the model are simultaneously zero and in exams of nested fashions' (University..., 2016). Model c2 is used to check statistical importance among the dependent variable and a hard and fast of predictors. Pseudo R2 is 'a measure utilized in logistic and probit regression to symbolize the share of errors variance managed by means of the model.

The asterisks indicate the significance level of these results, with a unmarried asterisk marking consequences great to the 0.05 stage (meaning the possibility of the fee occurring with the aid of chance became less than or identical to 5%), a double asterisk marking outcomes sizeable to the 0.01 stage (which means the possibility of the cost going on through threat changed into much less than or equal 1%), and a triple asterisk marking outcomes huge to the 0.001 level (meaning the

DESCRIPTIVE RESULTS

Figure 1 underneath shows the descriptive results of the strategies used to sell library offerings and resources. In terms of which strategies used had been taken into consideration effective, 42.4% notion that e- mails had been effective. 29 factor one percent of respondents thought that library Website changed into an powerful promotion method, with 39.4% of respondents perceiving that library Website changed into a extra powerful method, and 19.4% a only approach. Thirty-nine point 4 percentage of respondents perceived that on line marketing become an effective promoting approach, with 38.8% of respondents wondering that use of social media was an powerful approach, 25.5% greater effective, and 10.3 % handiest. Webcasts were perceived as powerful by 33.3% of respondents Thirty- factor one in all respondents perceived that Website bulletins were powerful and 32.7 % of respondents said that Website bulletins were extra effective. However, best 6.7 % of respondent‘s notion that Website announcements were best. Advertisements were perceived as powerful via 38.8% of respondents. Brochures had been suggested as effective through 41.2% of respondents. Flyers have been appeared to be correctly and greater efficiently used to promote library services and assets through 34.5% and 14.5% of respondents. 22 factor seven according to cent of respondents thought that giveaways had been powerful and 25.5% of respondents notion that giveaways had been a more effective method. Newsletters were thought effective by 34.5%, and 32.1% respondents thought that print advertising and marketing was powerful. Published courses were appeared to be efficaciously and greater correctly used to sell library offerings and sources by using 33.9% and 99% of respondents. Classroom guidance become visible as a powerful approaches by way of 26.7% of respondents, 40.6% an extra powerful approach, and 14.5% a most effective technique. Forty- point 4 percentage of respondents perceived that famous or displays had been thought an powerful advertising approach with the aid of 42.4% of respondents and 41.2% perceived face-to-face events as powerful, 30.9% greater powerful, and 10.3% best. Library excursions were notion an powerful method via 36.4%, 30.3% idea that library excursions were extra effective and 7.9% of respondents stated that library excursions had been simplest. 77 point 3 percent of respondents thought that One-to-one aid of 27.3% of respondents. Training periods were visible as effective by using 29.1%, greater effective by way of forty 6.7% and best by way of 39% of respondents. Workshops were seemed to be successfully, greater effectively and most effectively used to sell library services and resources by using 30.3%, 39.4% and 12.1% of respondents, respectively.

Figure 1: Percentage effectiveness of the techniques used to promote services and resources

Booklets and newsletters were seemed to be extremely efficaciously used to sell offerings and assets. Direct mail became looked as if it would be ineffective by means of 36.4% of respondents. The strategies of events which includes one-to-one conversations, classroom guidance, schooling sessions, face-to-face events and workshops and virtual media which includes library internet site and social media had been looked as if it would be seemed to be most successfully used to promote offerings and sources. All the strategies had been perceived to be used by all respondents. Thirteen loose remarks did now not include a true other merchandising approach.

CONCLUSION

This exploratory look at contributes to the frame of expertise about various techniques used to sell library services and sources and the library advertising literature by way of analyzing in outstanding depth the effectiveness of promotional tools used and the elements influencing the powerful promotion techniques used. It compares capital and library characteristics. It has realistic implications for how to efficiently promote destiny offerings and sources and contributes to future researchers looking to explore library promotional strategies. This examine found that demographics, human capital and library variables performed a vast function in instructional librarians' perceptions of effective advertising techniques used. Demographic variables such as age and sex, human capital variables which includes training degree, years in present position, officially reading advertising and marketing and attending a workshop on advertising in the final 5 years and library variables such as quantity of personnel, quantity of library branches and range of general purchasers have been huge predictors of perceptions of the effectiveness of the usage of promotion strategies, however this take a look at indicates that different independent variables together with wide variety of different library expert positions and years involved in all library services made no difference.

REFERENCES

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Corresponding Author Balwant Singh Rajodiya*

Lecturer – Library, Goswami Tulsidas Govt. (PG) College, Karwi, Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh

balwantjyotirajodiya@gamil.com