INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR OF CONSTITUTION ASSEMBLY MEMBERS ON PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY AND CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL DIALOGUE

Abstract

The thesis entitled "Information Seeking Behavior of Constitution Assembly members on Parliamentary Library and Centre for Constitutional Dialogue" has been carried out with the main objectives of finding out the information seeking behavior of CA members of Nepal. Two libraries, namely Parliamentary library and Centre for Constitutional Dialogue have been focused along with the CA members who visit there for information seeking purpose. Information seeking behavior or pattern of using information systems and centres depends on a numbers of factors. Some of these are closely related to the personal characteristics and traits of users, where as some depend on the information centre and the information systems. These have types of activities related to the information centre have not been carried out so far. Therefore, keeping this problem in mind, the present study has been carried out. The study has been conducted from two libraries (Parliamentary Library and Centre for Constitutional Dialogue) including to 60 respondents. The individual pattern of information seeking behavior of CA members have not been included and that has been clarified in the limitation of the study area. The extended objectives regarding collection development, services, users’ demands and problem faced by them have been clearly included in the present study. Some technical terms have also been defined in this study. Related sixteen literatures have been reviewed in the concerned chapter. The study has focused on the ISB of CA members and for those, two special libraries have been selected. The sample of population is taken CA members as respondents. Among them 35 are from PL and 25 are from CCD. They have been selected randomly to make the research more uniform and valuable. The researcher has used a set of questionnaires and observation as his basic instruments of research. The questionnaire has 5 sections and 19 questions including a cover letter clarifying about the work. Section one consists of personal information of respondents, section two consists about information collection, section three consists information services provided by libraries, section four consists information needs and last section of questionnaire consisted problem faced by CA members while seeking information on library. The methodologies used to conduct the research are direct filed observation and structured questionnaire. The collections of primary data has been analyzed quantitatively by vi using statistical tools such as: tabulation, pie chart and diagram with their detail interpretation. The majority finding of the study shows information being served by the library. Therefore, 70% of the CA members have been using both the libraries for seeking the information, 37 % have frequently used newspaper and 43% reveal that the internet is the most important source to know the information. Therefore, the use of internet is the library in increasingly high. Collection development of the library for information seeking is not adequate. 60% CA members expressed that the collection of library is fairly adequate. Al most all CA members have replied, they are familiar to library services and 36% agreed that CAS is the most familiar service of the library. Due to increasing demands of internet and e-mail both the libraries have used computer and 53% CA members have been using computer for searching information. For information seeking, library staff has played important role because 68% of CA members retrieve information in library with the help of library staff. Library offers many services to their user and CA members need to select, quick and pinpointed information from library. Regarding the function of library, most of respondents (60%) expressed that the library function is good. CA members are busy person, due to time constraints many CA members spending time in libraries is 5-10 hours a week in library for information seeking. They spent many time for reading political related documents, constitution drafting related documents, newspaper and magazine and government publications. The study shows that most of the CA members are not fully satisfied with the collection of the library because majority (68%) of them are facing common problem while information seeking in library i.e. wanted books and documents are unavailable. Therefore, to overcome this problem of the respondents both the libraries have to increase the latest volume of publications. Basing upon the obtained data, its analysis and summary of the study, necessary recommendations have been made. In short, both the libraries have to facilitate physical facilities for comfortable use of the library. Similarly, documents relating to political science subjects should be added. However, the demands in CAS, newspaper clippings, power back up for internet are the demand made by CA members, are quiet reasonable. This fact also has been recommended for fulfillment. vii Reference, appendices and curriculum vitae of the researcher have been included at the end of the thesis. Keywords: Information seeking behavior, CA members Lalit Prasad Bist