Digital reference services in selected public academic libraries in Malaysia: a case study

Digital reference services in selected public academic libraries in Malaysia: a case study. In: Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Conference on Library & Information Education & Practice 2006 (A-LIEP 2006), 3 - 6 April 2006, Singapore. (Submitted) (2006)



Abstract

Reference service is one of the library’s primary services besides acquisitions, classification, cataloguing and physical planning. This service provides personalized assistance to library users in accessing and using suitable information resources to meet their needs. This research progress paper attempts to identify the status of digital reference services (DRS) in four public university libraries in Malaysia. In this study, the researcher attempts to identify usage of both traditional and digital reference services, user awareness of DRS, user satisfaction, and need for DRS. Two different sets of questionnaires were
istributed: (1) a librarians’ questionnaire to librarians in the four university libraries, namely, Tun Abdul Razak Library, UiTM; University of Malaya (UM) Library; Tun Seri Lanang Library, UKM; and Sultan Abdul Samad Library, UPM; (2) a users’ questionnaire to students of the Faculty of Information Management, UiTM, and the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, UiTM, UM and UPM. The findings show that DRS are effective forms of service delivery but their full potential has not yet been exploited. Email reference, Web forms and Ask-A Librarian are the main channels used in providing digital reference, although plans are under way to implement more sophisticated Internet technologies and collaborative digital reference

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Keywords: Library services, Reference services, Personalized assistance, Library users, Public university libraries
Taxonomy: By Subject > Information Management > Library and Information Management
By Subject > Information Management > Library Science
Local Content Hub: Subjects > Information Management
Depositing User: Muhammad Shafiq Amirullah
Date Deposited: 01 Jun 2022 06:06
Last Modified: 01 Jun 2022 06:06
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