AEIJMR Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2016 ISSN - 2348 - 6724

Library Facilities in First Grade Colleges of Chitradurga District: An Assessment

*Mr. Papanna S
**Dr. B.Raviivvenkat
*Librarian, HPPC. Govt.First Grade College, Challakere, Chitradurga Dist. Karnataka
**Deputy Librarian, Tumakur University, Tumakur, Karnataka
Abstract
College Libraries play on important role in the developing the overall of the college courses
and PG students go-into students and teachers. At presently First Grade Colleges have various
post-graduation students and also the college libraries are supposed to perform the functions:
teaching, research, publications, conservation of knowledge and ideas, services and interaction
and also they are depend upon the quality of services that are being provided by college
students and teachers. This article deals with an availability and use of information resources,
service facilities in First Grade College libraries in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. A
questionnaire designed for this purpose was framed with components focusing on number of
collection and their nature, service facilities and the users of the libraries. Questionnaire was
distributed to affiliated First Grade Colleges in the district and data collected is analyzed
statistically. Computer based service facilities, Physical infrastructure, collection and services
provided by these libraries have not developed sufficiently.
Keywords: College library, Computer service, Physical infrastructure, Chitradurga
district, Colleges of Karnataka.
Introduction
Library is a dynamic instrument of education. Its basic functions are to satisfy the
intellectual needs of the users in the past. The librarians were not subjected to the rapid use
of the documents as it prevails today. Modern libraries are not a storehouse and books are
meant for the preservation and conservation. These are regarded as a service Institutions or
knowledge and Information centers.
A Modern Library, with a few exceptions is regarded as a service institution. Its aim is
to enable the users to make the most effective use of the resources and services of the library.
This type of library acquires material, processed it, and makes it available for use rather than
preservation. It allows open access to its collection and provides service to its users. It is
expected to convert potential users into habitual users. A habitual user is the one who goes to
a library regularly and uses the library as a matter of habit.
Today we are living in digital Era. As Internet revolution is unfolding users are
becoming more aware of information and communication benefit for over all development at
individual and society level.
Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has given in his essay viz The Knowledge
Society that; the word knowledge is available at many places. One can get them through the
education, information, intelligence, and experience. All these get through the academic
institutions and libraries and these libraries are play a major role in preserving resource of
knowledge. 1
Academic libraries are established for the benefit of the faculty and students users.
They are real academic parts of every educational institutes offering services based upon book
materials, Non-book materials and modernized digital resources for various subject based
faculty and student groups on arts, commerce, management, science and technology etc.
Among all these types of libraries evolved by institutions in current era, academic libraries are
most popular because of the functions they perform. They play a very significant role in the
welfare of the college and higher education.
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AEIJMR Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2016 ISSN - 2348 - 6724

College Libraries
A college is considered as an academic institution of higher learning offering three-year
degree course. In colleges, library occupies a prominent position and it is an important and
integral part of the teaching programme. It is not merely a depository of books, but an active
workshop instrument in the production of original thinking. The aim of college education and
college libraries is inter-related. College library extends opportunities for self-education to the
deserving and enthusiastic students without any distinction. These libraries develop in each
student a sense of responsibility in the pursuit of knowledge. College library stimulate the
students to obtain, evaluate and recognize knowledge and to familiarize him with the trends of
knowledge for further education and learning new discipline.
The clientele would consist of students and teachers and administrative staff. Library
should provide the information to the students and teachers specific subject area. Information
documents of the library. Assistance in the location of documents or use of library catalogue,
OPAC or understand of reference books etc.
Scope and Limitations of the Study
The present study attempts to know the present conditions (i.e., facilities, resources,
and services) of First Grade Colleges libraries in Chitradurga district. The college libraries
consist of Arts, Commerce, Science, Business management and Bachelor of Computer
Application. The study delimits its scope to Government, Private, aided and unaided colleges.
This study excludes professional is that limitation colleges. Geographically the scope of the
study is limited to first grade colleges located in Chitradurga district only. Further, while
studying user requirements, the scope of the study is confined to students, teachers of first
grade colleges.
Need For the Study
The College libraries cannot be intellectual centers, unless they move fast and equip
them-selves well to catch up with the current trend. At present all types of First Grade College
Libraries in Chitradurga district are suffering inadequate resources-documents, finance and
manpower unscientific organization poor quality of physical facilities and services and above
all, lack of recognition of their important academic role. This needs the study of the first grade
college libraries in Chitradurga district. Therefore, to study in details various aspects of first
grade college libraries in Chitradurga district.
Hence the present study entitled Availability and Use of Information ResourcesService Facilities in First Grade College Libraries in Chitradurga District: A Uses Survey
is undertaken.
Statement of the Problem
The present problem of the study is entitled First Grade College Libraries in
Chitradurga District: An Assessment. This problem related to highlight these different
facets of college libraries in research area. This study will provide basis for redefining college
libraries in order to play an important role in higher education.
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the present study are: to know
1.
2.
3.
4.

To
To
To
To

know the organization of section in libraries of Chitradurga district.

know the library resources and service facilities of research area.
study the technical processing and organization of documents.
know the Computer related facilities in the libraries.
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AEIJMR Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2016 ISSN - 2348 - 6724

5. To identify the availability of physical facilities in first grade college libraries in Chitradurga
district.
Review of Literature
Kannappanvar and Mathad (2000)7 conducts a survey of 720 first grade college libraries
in Karnataka State India; the authors were categorized in to four types of first grade colleges
.Viz, Aided Government, Constituent, and Unaided colleges. The study covers various aspects
of librarians qualifications, library staff, working hours, classification schemes used, lending,
reference service, and physical facilities. They concluded that the present status of college
libraries in the state was far from satisfactory, owing to inadequate funds and under staff.
Jayasunderara (2001)8 had conducts an investigation into the determinants of service quality
in University Library of Sri Lanka with the objective of measuring the use perception of
services quality. A careful inspection of tabulated data on the usefulness of determinants to be
assessed in order to understand service quality in academic libraries. The study revealed that
the students and faculty members were satisfied with the determinants of reliability, courtesy,
competence, and tangible, but not satisfied with responsiveness, communication and access.
The study suggested that the libraries, especially those in university libraries, must lay more
emphasis on service quality than on high quality tangible facilities. Academic Libraries: Lohar
and Mallinath (2002)9 conducted a survey of use of library facilities and information resources
in Sahyadri College in Shimoga, (Karnataka). The faculty responses were collected through a
questionnaire. The analysis of the data covered library resources and service and physical
facilities provided by the college authority. The main aim of the study was to ascertain the
opinion of the faculty regarding the adequacy of information resources and services available
in the library. The study includes that the faculty members expressed their satisfaction
regarding the information resources and services available in the library and that, at the same
time, they expressed their unhappiness regarding the physical facilities provided by the library
authority. Liao et al. (2007) 10 conducted a comparative study of the information needs and
information seeking behavior of international graduate students and American graduate
students under title Information-Seeking Behavior of International Graduate Students vs.
American Graduate Students: A User Study at Virginia Tech 2005. Study is based on the
opinions collected through online survey. Basamma and Gurumurthy (2014)11 Conducted of
role of the academic libraries in Indian higher education environment. University Grants
Commission and higher education experts are concerned about quality of higher education
and they want to develop higher education infrastructure keeping in view the quality as s data
about universities, colleges, teachers and students which have grown over a period of last 58
years. It defines best practices as an application of procedures to yield superior results which
means way of doing things in particular organization as guidelines for practices in academic
libraries. Some features which should have been included in the set meant for improving the
services of the college libraries are being proposed here while evaluating the criteria of with an
automobile industry for the purpose of quality of management with a set of indicators The
paper provides a few examples of the best practices experienced in libraries in different
situations by comment that blind imitation, false competition; status symbolism will not work
and finally submits that best practices of British libraries and American Centre Libraries
operating in India should have been included for our purpose. Adithyakumari and Talwar
(2015) 12 conducted a study of use of referenced sources in university libraries in Karnataka in
the required data was collected through a questionnaire. This article investigates the use of
reference sources, i.e., bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, year-books and almanacs,
geographical sources and handbooks through a questionnaire based survey in seven
university libraries in Karnataka. So, seven university libraries under this study and also this
study indicates use pattern of various reference sources in study area.

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AEIJMR Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2016 ISSN - 2348 - 6724

Methodology
The investigator carried out the literature search using primarily LIS (Library and
Information Science abstracts) database and other sources. The researcher has also consulted
primary sources such as Journals, Reports and Conference proceedings etc., related to the
research topic.
The investigator has designed the following questionnaires and interview schedule to
collect the required data for the present study.
1. Questionnaire to the Librarians.
2. Questionnaire to the Faculty and Students.
Questionnaires to the Librarians
The investigator has designed a set of questionnaires to librarians and personally
distributed to the entire (29 Colleges) first grade College librarians of Chitradurga district
under the study area to collect the primary data about the Information resources, services and
physical facilities. The librarians in the study area are well responded. The filled in questions
received from librarians were later analyzed and interpreted.
Personal Interview
The interview was conducted with the members of the librarians, wherever necessary,
to validate responses received.
Techniques Used In the Data Analysis
All the questions in the questionnaire were not designed to generate scores for
assessing the opinion of faculty members and students towards the college libraries. In some
cases it was not possible to scale the answers because they were limited to a Yes or No
answer. The data were measured in a normal scale, therefore the parametric technique could
not be applied. Hence, it was decided to apply Non-parametric statistics to the data. The data
obtained from the respondents were analyzed, using the following methods; arithmetic mean,
standard deviation and Co-Efficient of variation.
Organization of section in Libraries
Table-1 Organization of section in Libraries
Sl. No

Sections

No of
Libraries

Percentage

Office

0.00

Book Ordering/ Acquisition Section

1.75

Technical Section

0.00

Periodical Section

0.00

Reference Section

20

35.08

Textbook section

28

49.12

Browsing section

14.03

Any other

0.00

57

100.00

Total
* Total for multiple-choice answers*

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AEIJMR Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2016 ISSN - 2348 - 6724

Table-01 shows the organizational of sections in Libraries, majority 28 (49.12%) of
libraries have Text book sections, 20 (35.8%) college libraries have Reference section and
8(14.3%) of libraries have Browsing section. Bellow 1(1.75%) of libraries consist Book
ordering and acquisition section.
Separate budget for libraries
The present study (table-2) reveals that of the total 23(27.31%) college libraries have
separate / independent budget, followed by 4 (13.79%) colleges, which have not provided
separate budget for library.
Table-02 Separate library budget provision in the college
Sl. No

Opinion

No of Libraries
(n=29)

Percentage

Yes

23

27.31

No

13.79

29

100.00

Total
Source library budget

Table-3 shows that, majority 20(47.61%) of the colleges received grants UGC and
16(38.09%) received from State Government and each 14 colleges received from their
respective managements. Only 4 colleges libraries received grants from other source, it
represents 4.76% of the total responses respectively.
Table: 03 Sources of library budget
Sl. No

Funding agencies

No of Libraries

Percentage

UGC

20

47.61

State Government

16

38.09

College management

14

33.33

Any other (please specify)

4.76

42

100.00

Total
* Total for multiple-choice answers*
Status of Classification and Cataloguing

Table-4 reveals that, majority 21(72.41%) of libraries have So for not Classified and
Catalogued. their collection and less 3(10.34%) percentage of college libraries have not Fully
Classified and Catalogued their collection.

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Table: 04 Status of Classification and Catalogue
Sl.
No

Type of classification

No of Libraries (n=29)

Percenta
ge

Fully classified and Catalogued

10.34

Partially
Catalogued

and

17.24

Not
at
all
Catalogued

and

21

72.41

29

100.00

classified
classified
Total

Computerization of Libraries
The Table-5 shows the nature of computerization in the libraries. Majority 24(82.75%)
of libraries have Not computerized their operations. Hence, 04(13.79%) of libraries have
Partially computerized their operations. Only 1(3.44%) library having computerized its
operations.
Table: 05 Nature of Computerization
Sl. No

Opinion

No of Libraries

Percentage

Fully computerized

01

3.44

Partially computerized

04

13.79

Not
at
computerized

24

82.75

29

100.00

all

Total

Fig: 01 Nature of Computerization

No of Libraries

Percentage

3.44%

13.79%

82.75%

24

Fully computerized

Partially computerized

Not at all computerized

Library Softwares
The following Table-6 shows that, library software used in the libraries. 3 Libraries are
using Library Manager, Easy Lib and Koha respectively represents (75.00%) each of the total
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AEIJMR Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2016 ISSN - 2348 - 6724

responses. 02 (50.00%) Libraries are using E-Granthalaya Software and also One 1(25.00%)
library is use the E-LIB software in the library for its operations and services.
Table: 06 Software are using in the library
Sl. No

Name
theSoftwares

of

No of
Colleges

Percentage

LIBRIS

00

00.00

LIBSYS

00

00.00

LIBSOFT

00

00.00

LIBRARIAN

00

00.00

E-LIB

01

25.00

E-GRANTHALAYA

02

50.00

Any
other
specify)

03

75.00

04

100.00

(Please

Total
Library Building

An inquiry relating to library building reveals that, Majority of 26(89.65%) libraries have
not separate library building to house their collection. Only the remaining 03.(10.34%) do
have separate library building.
Tale: 07 Separate Library Building
Sl No

Opinion

No of Colleges

Percentage

Yes

03

10.34

No

26

89.65

10

100.00

Total
Adequacy of Physical facilities

It was felt desirable to know the opinion of librarians regarding the adequacy of physical
facilities available in their respective college libraries. The result of the survey revealed
through the opinion of the college librarian is given below. The following Table-8 shows that,
majority, 9(17.31%) of libraries having Natural lighting and Proper ventilation in their
library, whereas Eight (15.38%) libraries are having Adequate toilet and Drinking facility,
and each 7(13.46%) of libraries are having Adequate space, Sufficient lighting arrangement
and Comfortable furniture in their libraries. Less percentage of (5.76%) of three libraries are
having Adequate toilet and drinking water in the premises libraries.

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Table: 08 Adequacy of Physical facilities
Sl. No

Opinion

No of
Colleges

Percentage

Adequate space

13.46

Sufficient natural light

17.31

Proper ventilation

17.31

Sufficient lighting arrangement

13.46

Sufficient and comfortable furniture

13.46

Adequate toilet and drinking water

5.76

Parking facilities for vehicles

9.62

52

100.00

Total
Total for multiple-choice answers*
Conclusion:

Considering the findings of this study, the College libraries of Chitradurga district under
the scope of the present study reveal that majority of college libraries are ailing on many fronts
like inadequate Organization sections in libraries, library resources and service facilities
technical processing, Computer related facilities physical facilities, partially classification and
Cataloguing, lack of financial, lack of financial support, absence of scientific organization and
processing of documents by college libraries in Chitradurga district demanding that major
actions for reviving the spirit of College libraries are the need of the hour. Librarians, teachers,
and students are having the responsibilities to act collectively for adding value to the concept
of college libraries. It is suggested that college authorities must focus on building the
infrastructure in libraries, provide professional manpower to libraries, set in motion the
concept of introducing library automation in libraries, framing a policy for collection building
and rules for providing services to library users in an effective and efficient manner.
References:
1.
Kalam, A.P.J. The Knowledge Society, Anthology of prose and poetry, Vision and Work
Book, Shimoga, Kuvempu University,2004 Pp.25.
2.
Ravi,N(Ed.).:The Hindu Speaks on Libraries, Kasturi and Sons Ltd.,Madras,1992, Pp.
142.
3.
ARTHUR KOESTLER, TOYNBEE, A.J. AND ROBERT NISBET: New Encyclopedia
Britannica, 15th Ed., Chicago, and University of Chicago Press, 1929.
4.

SISO: Learners English Dictionary, 1st Ed., Trivandrum, SISO Books, 2002.

5.
India, Ministry of Education, Report of the Education Commission 1964-66: Education
and National Development, New Delhi, Manager of Publication. 1966, PP 288.
6.
Randall, W.M and Francis, I, Principles of College Library Administration, Chicago, ALA
and University of Chicago Press, 1936, P.19.
7. Kannappanavar, B.U and Mathad, C.G Profile and first grade college libraries in
Karnataka. Annals of Library Science and Documentation, 47(4), 2000. pp.131-140.
8.
Jayasunderara (2001)43 Determinants of service quality in University Library of Sri Lank
with the objective of measuring the use perception of services quality,2001,pp.110-120

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9.
Lohar, M S. and Mallinath Kumar: use of Library of facilities and information resources
in Sahydri Colleges, Shimoga (Karnataka), Annals of Library and Information studies. Vol.49
(3), September 2002, pp.73-87.
10.
Liao, Yan; Finn, Mary; and Lu Jun:Information- Seeking Behaviour of International
Graduate Students vs American Graduate Students: A User Study at Virginia Tech 2005,
College and Research Libraries, 2007, Vol. 68, No. 1, PP. 5-25.
11.
Basamma and Gurumurthy: Conducted of role of the academic libraries in Indian
higher education environment, 2014, Pp.110-116.
12. Adithyakumari and Talwar, Library expectation by the distance education students of
Correspondence Courses and distance education, Bangalore university: A study. Emerging
Technologies and future of libraries, Issues and Challenges, 2015, Pp.235-380.

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