STATUS OF MEDICAL LIBRARIES OF KATHMANDU VALLEY

Abstract

The thesis entitled “Status of Medical Libraries of Kathmandu Valley” has been carried out to find out the status of information services provided by medical libraries of Kathmandu Valley, examine the status of information services in the medical libraries, and evaluate the users’ as well as librarians’ perception towards the services provided by the medical libraries and their development. But so far their activities have not been studied. Therefore, realizing those problems this study has been carried out. The objective of this study is to know the status of services provided by the post-graduate medical college libraries, there types and standard, the perceptions of users’ as well as librarians’ towards the services provided by these libraries and finally to evaluate the perception of librarian towards their services. Although there are many medical libraries, only two medical libraries have been included due to constraint of time and resources. The significance of the study is that it has produced some effects on what happens in the future of those medical libraries. Related literatures in this field have been reviewed. Ideas of like minded personalities have been included, quoted and taken as the basis for further study. NAMS and TUTH library along with the information services provided by them have been precisely focused. Regarding the research design this study is based on primary data using questionnaire as well as secondary data. The collected data have been presented and analyzed using frequency distribution tables and pie-charts with their detail interpretation. Purposively 70 users of 2 post-graduate medical college libraries of Kathmandu Valley namely NAMS and TUTH have been taken as sample of the study. It is found that most of the respondents 61 (87.1%) are students, 7 (10%) are teaching faculties and few 2 (2.9%) are the medical officers. It is found that 63 (90%) visit the library daily followed by 5 (7.1%) weekly and equal numbers of the users (3%) visit the library monthly and less often, among the respondents, 30 (52.9%) respondents are satisfied with the opening hours of the library whereas majority 47.1% are not fully satisfied with the opening hours of the library. A brief summary of the study has been provided. It is concluded that there are no planned budget for purchasing books, as per demand of the users and based priority of the authority books are purchased; there is no written policy regarding vi development of the library. Most of the users are not satisfied with the services provided by the library. Regarding the policy, most of the policy such as budget, development of library services e.g. automation has been adopted on ad-hoc basis without written policy. Budget has not been allocated in appropriate rate in both the libraries. There is no information literacy program adopted by the libraries which has resulted in low use of existing library services. Finally, basing upon the study it has been recommended that there should be written standard, and policy guidelines in both the libraries. They have to provide library orientation to their users. Latest collection should be added each year and online library facilities should be arranged for the users. Along with their facilities, if the libraries maintain peaceful environment as adequate reading space, definitely the status of medical libraries in Nepal can be achieved. Gauri Dhakal