Measuring the impact of

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Measuring the impact of Technology on Quality of
Services and Operations in an Academic Library
NACLIN 2009

• Ashok Kumar Sahu
• Senior Librarian, IIMT
• Gulam Rasul
• Asst. Librarian, IIMT
• Dr.R.K.Mahapatra
• Reader, S.M.I.T, Berhampur University

Institute for International Management and
Technology (IIMT)
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Contents

• Introduction
• Trends in usage of information technology in
  academic libraries
• Application of information technologies
• Impact of information technology on library
  services
• Quality in library
• Objective of the study
• IIMT library- a case study
• Data analysis, findings
• Conclusion

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Introduction 
NACLIN 2009
This study is to measure the impact of
Information Technology (IT) on quality of service
as perceived by IIMT Library users and to
understand the status of IT supported resources,
facilities services in IIMT Library. The
research was carried out among the students and
faculty members of the IIMT. A questionnaire was
used as the data gathering instrument. SERVQUAL
was used as tool for data collection. The result
of the study observed gaps in customers
perception of quality of library resources and
services against their expectations.
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TRENDS in usage OF INOFRMATION TECHNOLOGY IN
ACADEMIC LIBRARIES .(1)
NACLIN 2009

• The advances in science and technology has made a
  tremendous improvement and changed the way all
  activities are done in the present society.
  Revolution in information technology,
  tremendously increased demand, consumption, and
  importance of information in the present society.
  Since 1960s libraries worldwide have been using
  technology in general and computers in particular
  to automate the administrative and technical
  tasks of the library (Raman,1998).

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NACLIN 2009
TRENDS in usage OF INOFRMATION TECHNOLOGY IN
ACADEMIC LIBRARIES ..(2)

• Internet brought the biggest change in libraries
  as 1990s saw the rapidly increasing availability
  of access to computers in general.
• In India, computerization of libraries had
  started in the year of 1955 at Indian Statistical
  Institute, Calcutta. During 1970s DRTC, BARC,
  TIFR, IIT-Madras, and BHEL- Hyderbad have used
  production of information products and services
  (Raman, 1998).
• INFLIBNET has played major role in bringing IT
  culture and establishing IT infrastructure in
  Indian Universities.

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OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

NACLIN 2009

• To determine the impact of IT on library
  operations and services as perceived by the
  students and staff of IIMT.
• To access user expectation, perceptions of
  service quality and gaps in perceived service
  quality in IIMT Library.
• To know the status of use IT IIMT Library.
• To make recommendations on how to improve the
  level of quality.

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NACLIN 2009
IIMT LIBRARY

• IIMT Library is fully computerised equipped
  with multimedia facilities. It uses Libsys
  Software. It is a lively place of the institute
  providing a safe, comfortable and friendly
  environment that enables learning and advancement
  of knowledge, and promotes discovery and
  scholarship. It has a rich collection of over
  10,000 books, 200 video/audio cassettes and 1000
  DVD/CD-ROMs on different subjects. It subscribes
  200 national and international journals. Library
  users can browse the library collection through
  online catalogue-OPAC system. Library has also
  been providing internet and online databases
  access facility. IIMT Library is connected with
  Wi-Fi network. It has a total of 700 users-both
  students, faculty.

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METHODOLOGY QUESTIONNAIRE

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• The study is based on a sample size of 80 (Total
  100 questionnaires were issued - 75 students and
  25 faculty members). The samples were randomly
  selected from the regular users of IIMT library.
  Both qualitative and quantitative data were
  collected.
• This study used survey method to approach the
  respondents through questionnaire as an
  instrument for data collection. The framework
  (SERVQUAL ) was developed using the variables
  suggested by Parasuraman and his team
  (Parasuraman, 1988).
• The questionnaire consists of four parts such as
  respondents demographic features, expectations,
  perceptions, overall ratings. All the closed
  ended questions were designed to be responded to
  on a five point Likert scale to measure both
  respondent satisfaction and perception of service
  quality.

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DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS
NACLIN 2009

• From 100 questionnaires, 80 responses were
  received. This
• represents an effective response rate of around
  80 of the total
• sample. Statistical methods are used to give a
  general picture
• about the result of this study.
• FREQUENCY OF LIBRARY VISIT AND TIME SPENT IN
  LIBRARY
• As per the table-1, it is observed that 53.75 of
  the respondent's visits library daily and 30
  visit once in 2-3 days. Further, 11.25 users
  visit library once a week and 3.75 users visit
  library fortnightly. Table-1 shows that 1.25
  users visit library occasionally. The statistical
  data (Table-1) has proved that maximum users
  visit the IIMT library daily.

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FREQUENCY OF LIBRARY VISIT TIME SPENT IN LIBRARY
NACLIN 2009

• The statistical table-1 shows that 47.50 of
  respondents spend less than 1 hour and 28.75
  spend 1-2 hours in the library. It means a
  majority of Respondents spend less than 2 hours
  during their library visit. And 15 respondents
  spend 2-3 hours in library. It indicates that, in
  the age of Internet E-resources the library can
  be accessed from anywhere. Now a days maximum
  library resources are available in electronic
  form. Availability of photocopying and scanner
  facilities, helps the users in photocopying or
  scanning their required material without spending
  much time in the library.
• USER EXPECTATIONS
• In table-2, the individual features are
  arranged on descending order and their mean score
  indicates priorities in user expectations. The
  overall average
• expectation score (4.26) indicates users
  high level expectations on library
• resources and services. As per table-2
  some features are high expected (mean gt 4.26) and
  some less expected (mean lt 4.26).

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USER PERCEPTION ON LIBRARY SERVICES
NACLIN 2009

• The respondents overall perception score (mean)
  is 3.709. This average perception scores (mean)
  is below the expectation score (mean) 4.27. It
  indicates that low perceptions about IIMT Library
  services. As per Table-3, the maximum perceived
  items are better in the mean score (mean gt
  3.709). And few items have least perception
  scores (mean lt 3.709). It indicates that the
  library staff should give more attention to least
  perceived items such as electronic resources, IT
  equipments services.

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GAP BETWEEN USER PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATION ON
SERVICE QUALITY

• The service quality measured as difference
  between user perceptions and expectations on
  library services. The table-4 presents the mean
  gap scores for individual features in descending
  order. The overall gap score (mean-0.563) is
  below the median score (-0.453) indicate the
  shortfalls in existing library resources and
  services against customer expectations. As per
  the table-4, all features have experienced
  noticeable gaps, about 14 features experienced
  high gaps (gt -0.453) and 15 features experienced
  low gaps (lt -0.453) by users inviting attention
  of service providers. The features that
  Experience high gaps are related to IT Supported
  resources and facilities. The high gap features
  indicate the need for immediate attention by the
  library staff and Management.

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OVERALL RATINGS OF USER PERCEPTIONS ON LIBRARY
NACLIN 2009

• The current research uses two approaches to
  assess the overall service quality of IIMT
• library from user perspective. The first approach
  is to measure the service quality as the
• difference between user perceptions and
  expectation. The second approach is the direct
• measure of overall user satisfaction through a
  question.

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CONCLUSION
NACLIN 2009

• Libraries are using the information technology to
  automate a wide range of administrative and
  technical processes, build databases, and
  network, and thereby provide better services to
  their users.
• The overall assessment of service quality and
  user satisfaction is moderate indicating wide
  scope for improvement. The following three
  features 1. Adequacy of print resources, 2.
  Electronic resources, and 3. IT Services are
  rated good and adequate by around 60 users and
  40 users rated as very poor. Consequently the
  library staff should give more attention to these
  three features.

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Question Please ?

NACLIN 2009

• THANK YOU!
• Contact e-mail gulam_at_iimtobu.ac.in