Effectiveness Of Online Public Access Catalogue In Meeting User Information Needs At The University Of Nairobi Library

Abstract

The University library is considered as the heart-beat of the intellectuality of the university as the quality of the university is determined against its library given its unique role. This critical role of libraries requires them to be innovative in their service delivery. This has resulted to systems such as OPAC that have facilitated access of catalogued information. The aim of this study was to weigh up the effectiveness of the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) in meeting user information needs at the University of Nairobi (UoN) Library. The specific purpose of this study were to: establish the functions of OPAC applied at the UoN Library; determine ways in which the OPAC at the UoN Library helps in meeting user information needs; establish limitations of OPAC at the UoNLibrary in meeting user information needs; and determine how limitations of OPAC at the UoN Library can be addressed to help in meeting user information needs. For this study, the principle of least effort was used as the theory underpinning the area of study. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in the research design. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to gather data from the study‟s respondents. The target population was the UoN College of Architecture and Engineering Library users. The study determined that the OPAC that was being used by the University library was not meeting user information needs of all its users. The biggest limitations of OPAC included non-availability to offsite access, non-accessibility through mobile phones, lack of inter-library resource linkages, lack of user notifications of reserved materials, poor friendly user interface, low literacy skills on OPAC and location problems of materials due to miss-shelving. The study recommends strategies such as re-configuring OPAC for offsite access, accessibility through mobile phones and allowing inter-library resource linkages through OPAC was ways of improving this OPAC in meeting user information needs at the UoN library. If the findings and recommendations of the study can be adopted by University of Nairobi library management, then it will help in policy formulations and OPAC system improvement that will help in addressing user information needs