Seminar Theme

Users, collection and staff are the three important components of any library.  The library is intended to provide services to meet the information requirements of the users.  The success of the library is depends upon the extent to which the library meets the requirements of the users. Users are the best judges to measure the performance of the library.

The users at present are using e-resources more than traditional information sources and their usage are going-up year by year. These electronic resources came into existence due to the advancements in the ICTs, Electronic publishing, Internet, WWW and mobile technologies.  The users are now saving a lot of time due to the availability of online databases compared to the old days when computers and many other IT tools were not available. Nowadays, the users can also access online databases remotely without coming to the library physically.

Therefore, academic libraries are forced to acquire, organize, manage and provide electronic information sources and services to their users. By conducting user studies, Librarians can understand the impact of electronic resources on teaching, learning, research and users.  Based on the results of these studies. Library services can be modified to meet the information needs of users.  By gathering information from users, their interactions with library staff,  materials and services and the context in which these materials and services are used, the librarians can take right decisions in improving their libraries.

Sub-Themes

•        Need and purpose of User Studies

•        Types of User Studies

•        Types of Users in Academic Libraries

•        University Libraries

•        College Libraries

•        Engineering College Libraries

•        Agricultural College Libraries

•        Medical College Libraries

•        Other Academic Libraries

•        Information Needs of  Various Categories of Users

•        Research Design for conducting User Studies

•        Sample Selection in conducting User Studies

•        Statistical Techniques for Data Analysis

•        Development of Instruments and Tools for asuring Use, Awareness, Satisfaction

            and IT Skills

•        Online/Mobile reading habits

•        Users of E-resources

•        Use and user studies in Digital Libraries

•        Return on Investment (ROI)

•        Measuring of Quality of Services  in libraries

•        Problems in conducting User Studies

•        Recent Trends in User Studies – India, U.S.A., and U.K.

•        Case Studies in User Studies

           Any sub-theme relevant areas to the above main themes