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Item A Gap Analysis of User Perception on Information Content of the University Libraries in Sri Lanka(3rd International Conference on Library and Information Management, Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Wanigasooriya, PriyanwadaThis paper evaluated user perception on content of information or collection of university libraries in Sri Lanka. Study employed LibQUAL tool to collect data from university community and research revealed that library collections are not in a satisfactory level among users in university libraries.Item LibQUAL Analysis of Library Services in University Libraries in Sri Lanka(Reviewing International Encounters 2018,The Research Center for Social Sciences (RCSS), University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Wanigasooriya, PriyanwadaCurrently, in an ‘open/service-oriented information society' technology has increased access to content by bringing up information resources to one's fingertips and the provision of such services are increasingly becoming the signifier of excellence of quality. Therefore, over the years, the role of conventional university libraries has led to sophisticated service centers superseding the traditional storehouse concept. Thus compared to the global situation, university libraries in Sri Lanka have attempted to provide overall best services for their targeted users. But, in the Sri Lankan context some questions such as what are the users’ right information desires, are these desires being fulfilled, what are the evaluation criteria for library quality, what are the reasons for the lack of frequent library usage and why do people gradually drop out from libraries, what steps have to be taken to provide better services and how to retain registered users while attracting new ones remain unanswered. For an understanding of these matters and how the existing shortcomings can be fixed, sound studies are vital. This study aimed to evaluate the user perception and overall quality of services at university libraries in Sri Lanka. It provided suggestions to overcome identified difficulties encountered during the reception of library services. As the first LibQUAL survey conducted in Sri Lanka, this survey helped to assess current service performance (perceived services), users’ minimum and maximum (desired services) expectations and service quality gaps (adequacy and superiority) of their main user groups. The study concluded that there were only seven (31%) propositions in the entire survey that the users' minimum expectations were met. They included giving users’ individual attention, employees’ knowledge to answer users’ questions and their caring fashion, remote accessibility of electronic resources, quiet comfortable and inviting location which inspires studying and learning. Comparing “library as place” and “effect of service”, “information control" dimension received lowest perceived performance level at the survey. In contrast, a number of user expectations on resources (printed/electronic), library website and information searching tools were fewer satisfaction areas. Users mostly complained on issues related to locating materials and the fact that, they were less aware about the resources and services that the libraries offered. Furthermore, the majority of users negatively responded on internet related matters, unavailability of sufficient books for their own field of study in Sinhala language, noisy environment since people can be loud, telephone conversations and user behaviors. From users’ views libraries could not meet minimum users’ expectations except in some cases. Finally, the examination of users’ minimum expectations showed that the proposition of “making information easily accessible for independent use” was most important and the proposition of “giving users individual attention” was relatively less important. This study mainly identified 15 service areas which were in need of improvement. Continuous formal and attractive online and offline user education programs, sufficient staff training to upgrade their professional knowledge and inculcate positive attitudes among them, the increment of the minimum staff requirements especially for IT related purposes, the renovation and proper maintenance of library buildings and repair of the equipment which were vital to providing effective services for users. In addition to that, frequent user survey is also essential for the better understanding of users ever-changing desires.Item User Perception on Affect of Services in University Libraries in Sri Lanka.(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka., 2017) Wanigasooriya, PriyanwadaAffect of service considered the human interaction of services of libraries. Since most important factors for good library services recognized as library staff members attitude and demeanor interpersonal skills interviewing and listening skill, and the effective approach, accuracy, and ability to provide the correct answer for customers. Recent studies suggested that perceptions of customer service quality depending on staff differencesand in online or offline interpersonal environment. Library employees play*a major*role in the functioning and*running of university libraries. Although they play an essential part, the key debate of the library administrators is what kind of library experience is linked to an effective library? Since there is no perfect measurement that can be used to evaluate the financial or sentimental values of library employees activities to its service quality but they influenced to the users in many ways. The majority of the findings regarding the service quality sector found that users expect politeness and help from the employees at the libraries especially those at the front desks whose main responsibility are for inquiries. The objectives of the study were to identify user perception on library staff, users’ minimumand desired expectationsfrom library staff, identify the users’ difficulties encountered from the receipt of library services and determine the necessary modifications to upgrade the service quality of the university libraries in Sri Lanka. The study employed the qualitative descriptive mixed method. Questionnaire survey and interviews has been employed.Two different types of questionnaires were used for the study: users’ questionnaires and librarians’ questionnaires. The samples of the respondents were of different ages, gender and disciplines and their frequency of library service usage varied. The peak hours of the libraries are from 10:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. making it perfect for the distribution of questionnaires, as most libraries are being utilized to do several activities. All data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22 for Windows. The study mainly employed descriptive, frequency and gap analysis methods for data analysis. Study found that although, users were not expecting library employees’ individual attention while they utilize the library for numerous purposes, users have concerned on library employees’ knowledge and dependability in handling their service problems. But this study has observed that the librarians’ helpfulness, understanding of users’ information needs, willingness of handling their service problems are area of less satisfaction in Sri Lankan university libraries. Some of the library users have complained about the libraries were loud since staff talking and telephone conversations.Concluded data from the survey further illustrated that lack of library employees of sections to better maintains, their less supportiveness and carless fashion are also area of less satisfaction of users. To overcome above identified matters developing library employee’s training/motivation programs and recruiting minimum required employees for libraries are timely needed.Item Evaluation and Assessment of E-Service Quality of University Libraries in Sri Lanka(2017) Si, Li; Wanigasooriya, Priyanwada; Ranaweera, R.A.A.S.This paper aims to evaluate the quality of e-services provided via Sri Lankan University library websites to examine their current status and issues related to services. The study employed web-based survey method to evaluate the quality of e-services. Purposive sampling method was used to select 15 university libraries from the population. We adapted a 62 itemed checklist which was organized into 6 categories; core e-service, e-reference service, facilitating e-service, supportive e-service, currency, accuracy and speed quality, and website features examined by the survey. The study was limited to the 15 university library websites offering e-services in Sri Lanka by the expert judge approach which examined how well they performed during the study period. The data revealed that, although university libraries are offering more e-services via the websites, development of e-services is still in its infancy stage as compared to those of international experience. However, suggestions for future improvements are given. The results of this survey should assist in the evaluation of e-services and promote the services in an attractive way, enabling designers, and policy makers to improve upon future websites. In addition further studies are required to understand the user perception of the e-services to meet the specific needs of different types of users including the faculties and the students utilizing the university libraries.Item Popularity of Cyber Libraries among the Academic Community in Sri Lanka(2010) Wanigasooriya, PriyanwadaInformation and Communication Technology(ICT) has revolutionized the concept of libraries. Each and every library is slowly getting digitized in the whole world. A concept of cyber library,elactronic library,digital library or libraray without walls comprises of digital collections, services and infrastructure to support lifelong learning, research, scholarly communication as well as preservation and conservation of our recorded knowledge. These libraraies reflect not only the changing nature of library referencing but also altering the attitudes of the people in the society. As an example; reading a paper, finding an article, a book, and author etc; from the cyber library is more trouble-free than in the various types of traditional physical libraries. (Public, National, Special and Academic). Today many users are dealing with online reference to overcome their academic desires such as compiling assignments, theses. So they inevitably become members of the cyber libraries and inevitably get addicted to it. This paper discusses accessibility, availability and popularity of cyber libraries among members of the academic community of universities in Sri Lanka. The main objectives of this study are to identify popularity of cyber libraries and to enhance the quality and user friendliness of cyber libraries for academic community in Sri Lanka. Another objective of this study is to identify the limitations of cyber libraries. The methodology followed in this study is deep exploration of cyber libraries and collecting data by sending questionnaires to 5% of the randomly selected academic staff members from 10 universities in Sri Lanka. Primary data revealed that cyber libraries are popular than the physical libraries among the academic community today, owing to their advantages (i.e. no physical boundary, round the clock availability, multiple access, easy information retrieval facility), and also due to its hospitality and user friendliness. On the other hand, they used to cite between 20%-40% of digital information for their research and in the bibliographies. Suggestion is made to introduce more training and guidance for better searching and retrieving information from the cyber libraries.Item A National Collaborate Plan for the Development of Libraries in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2013) Wanigasooriya, PriyanwadaThe essential feature of any good library system in any country is cooperation and collaboration. ‘Library collaboration is an umbrella term for the wide spectrum of cooperative processes and mechanism’. Concept of collaboration is brotherly and sisterly love or at least partnership abound. There are three major forms of activities connected with library collaboration. Firstly, in terms of ‘exchange’ secondly by ‘coalition’ (working together) and thirdly ‘entrepreneurial and one way marketing’. As a developing country like Sri Lanka should have a national collaboration plan for the development of libraries under the one umbrella. The ‘Mahinda Chinthana-Vision of future’, printouts main objective of the Sri Lanka is to transform into a strategically important economic centre of the world. Using our strategic geographical location effectively, it will develop our motherland as a naval, Aviation, Commercial, energy and Knowledge hub, serving as a key link between the east and the West. According to above mentioned vision will be able to achieved by batter use of information and knowledge in the country. According to the Statistics of the National Library and Documentation Services Board, there are more than 6,557 libraries in Sri Lanka. These libraries can be categorized into the following nine basic types:National library (1),Academic libraries (15),Special libraries (67),Public libraries (928),Departmental (34),School (4831),Piriven (615),Training collages (32) and Technical collages (34).But they work under the several government and non-government bodies. Main objective of the research is to identification of current situation of library collaboration and to develop a collaboration model for libraries in Sri Lanka. Other objectives of the research are; to study the existing status of library collaboration in Sri Lanka, to examine the collaboration programmes available in the south East Asian counties, to explain the issues and problems related to library collaboration in Sri Lanka, to design a national plan with the aim of improving library collaboration in Sri Lanka. Methodology followed in this study was survey and functional method. Stratified sampling method is used to select library sample for the research. 12 academic libraries(including university, Technical collages, Schools, Pirivens) and 30 special libraries (including national Library) and 10 main public libraries (Colombo, Kandy, Galle) as sample. Systematic sampling method is used to select users among the user population in above mentioned libraries in Sri Lanka. Primary data revealed that above mentioned libraries work under the several governmental, non-governmental or personal institutions. As an example, school libraries are under the ministry of education and special libraries are under their own cooperate bodies (i.e. Lake house library is under the lake house newspaper limited). However, above all types of libraries purchase library materials, maintain card or computer catalogues, classify materials, provide library services, recruit library staff, train them, provide user education programmes etc. without single collaboration plan even between one types of library. As a result of isolation from each other spend more money and waste time ineffectively.