guidelines for improving reference services at makerere university library

Description

The study was carried out to come up with guidelines for improving reference services at Makerere University Library. The objectives of the study were; to establish the current status of reference services at Makerere University Library, to find out how reference services at Makerere library are managed, to identify the challenge of managing reference services at Makerere University Library and to come up with the guidelines for improving library services at Makerere University Library. The study adopted a case study research design. Purposive sampling was used to select 15 library staff and convenience sampling to select 85 students who participated in the study. Questionnaires, interviews and observation were used to collect data from the respondents. The study established that Makerere University Library has got a number of facilities such as computers, internet, and telephone that help them to facilitate the reference services. The section has 5 librarians and the major source of funding to the library activities was the University Administration. The reference sources in the library were; dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, atlases and others. The study also established that the University Library get support from both the government and the donors ICTs also help them in the management of the reference services and resources. Users need a valid ID to access reference services from the University library at a free cost. The major challenges in the provision of reference services at MULIB were the inadequate funding and inadequate library staff. The suggestions for improving the provision of reference services were; employing more qualified staff, allocating more funds to the library and the provision of computers and internet in the library. The study developed the guidelines for the provision of reference services at Makerere University Library. The study concluded that there was a need to increase on the library funding and employ more librarians to improve the reference services in the library. The recommended the university library to develop reference services policy and guidelines, employ more staff and adopt the developed guidelines.