Browsing by Author "Illangarathne, S.K."

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Current Status & Future Challenges of the Public Libraries in Sri Lanka for the Pattern Change: a Case Study
(3rd International Conference on Library and Information Management, Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Dilrukshi, T.; Illangarathne, S.K.
This study focuses on the current status future challengers of the public libraries where located in the Polonnaruwa district in the North Central Province (NCP) in Sri Lanka with the perspectives of its properties, services, users and the staffs and latter part of the discusses the future challenges with the pattern change of the library professionals’ perspective. The questionnaire and interview were used as instruments in this study to collect data. The study revealed that the public libraries of Polonnaruwa District are not in the correct position by collection development. It also pointed out the most of the libraries are administered by the non-professional staffs. The major challenger was examined that library staffs are not in the good satisfaction level about their promotion mechanism. Finally it was reviled that the need of deep study about their problems strategically and address them quickly to uplift the service to the up to date level
Multi-Criteria Evaluation System for University Library’s Performance in Sri Lanka.
(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka., 2017) Illangarathne, S.K.
The continuous improvement is the key to long-term sustainable development for service orientation institutions. The recent studies on performance evaluation of service providing institutions have established several constructs, and the concept of “Performance Indexing” (PI) has emerged. This study concentrated on the system development of Multi-Criteria Evaluation for university libraries performance in Sri Lanka using the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). Though, assessing the overall performance of library instead of organizational effectiveness theory is very new and significant. There is a lack of library effectiveness evaluation theories and practices have been developed. Nevertheless, none of them attempted to evaluate the library performance instead of academic library context. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) model for PI particular reference to the university libraries of Sri Lanka. The ultimate goal of this model was to enhance the level of service efficiency and customer satisfaction throughout the improvement of inter-competitiveness among those libraries. To achieve the objectives and ultimate goals of the study, a structured questionnaire was developed to identify the users’ perceptions about current library services while examining the library expertise opinion about the importance of chosen model variables. The research questions were based on quantitative & qualitative constructs which adapted from organizational effectiveness theory such as; library efficiency, core people process, environment, users’ satisfaction, adaptability, and capacity. The Fuzzy extended Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was used to process the model. The model was tested with appropiate sample (Sample size = 269) of library users which consisted with faculty members and postgradents. The reliability of the questionnaire scale was suitable for further analysis and its (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.842),and the exploratory factor analysis has confirmed the validity of data. The data was highly correlated with selected factors. 24 items were selected for the further model test. The experts’ opinion survey revealed that Library Efficiency and Library Users’ Satisfaction are more influenced variables to library effectiveness while Library Capacity, Library Adaptability, and Library Environment are less influenced. The result suggests that library leaders should conduct continuous assessments about their services and should customize perceived quality according to the users’ perceptions. The major innovation of the study was to develop a new conceptual model to identify the key influential factors of performance. Another key innovation of the study was to construct a performance evaluation index using the fuzzy AHP evaluation indexing methods. The third innovation of the study was to use the Internet basis resources sharing methods via social media at the Sri Lankan University Libraries to meet their new era challenges.
Unraveling Library Over dues: Exploring Overdue Patterns through Analyzing Koha Reports from Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
(Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2023) Illangarathne, S.K.; Wanasinghe, W.M.P.G.K.T.
This study addresses the pervasive issue of Library Over dues (LO) by investigating their present situation and overdue patterns in the RUSL Library System. To understand these dynamics, the study employs quantitative analysis, utilizing a dataset retrieved from the Koha Library Management System. Extracting overdue report files, borrower records, and circulation logs, the research aims to discern patterns in frequency, type, and duration of over-dues, distributions faculty wise considering factors like user types and material categories. The study identified both the students and teacher’s overdue books as a nominal activity. When analyzing the clarifications for over dues noted that such as forgetfulness and extended borrowing mainly caused the lengthy over dues. The study intends to propose tailored strategies to eliminate the issue. Recommendations may involve user education, policy revisions, or technological interventions to enhance library services and mitigate over dues, adding more copies of outstanding books thereby contributing to a more efficient library system.