designing a user centered current awareness system for st joseph high school namagunga library

Description

The study aimed at designing a User Centered Current Awareness System for St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library. The objectives of the study were to; establish the status of Current Awareness Services (CAS) at St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library, find out how CAS are offered at St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library, identify the challenges in offering CAS at St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library and to design a CAS System for St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library. The study employed a case study research design while adopting both qualitative and quantitative research approaches in collecting data. Questionnaire, interview, and documentary analysis methods of data collection were used because of the nature of study. Simple random sampling method was used to select the 42 students, 10 teachers, and the 2 school librarians who participated in the study. The research findings showed that library users visit the library on a daily basis, to get more information in their fields of study so there is a need for the current awareness services. The library users visit the St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library to access the information materials, to consult about information the new information materials, and to use computers for research. The study findings showed that majority of the respondents agreed that the library rarely displays the new arrivals, a good number of respondents disagreed that there are emails sent to them notifying about the new updates in the library. Majority of library users access citation alert services. Library bulletins and newsletters are frequently used as well as the current additional information from publishers. The study findings revealed that St. Joseph High School Namagunga Library use a variety of methods in offering current awareness services to users which include personal visit to the library, communication through word of mouth, library displays and library newsletters. Findings from the study revealed that most of the challenges the respondents faced in current awareness services were; delayed display of the new arrivals, irregular CAS delivery by email, absence of internet access to some users, increased costs to the library in providing CAS to users. The recommendations for the study were; use of social media networks, use of notice boards, visiting the classes and inform them on the new updates, library visit hours, training of the library staff, and orientation of library users.