design of a virtual reference service system for bishop stuart university library

Description

The study aimed at designing a designing a virtual reference services system for Bishop Stuart University Library. The objectives of the study were; to identify the reference services offered at Bishop Stuart University Library, to examine how reference services are provided at Bishop Stuart University Library, to establish the challenges in offering reference services at Bishop Stuart University Library, to identify the requirements for a virtual reference service system at Bishop Stuart University Library, and to design a virtual reference service system at Bishop Stuart University Library. The researcher also applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches in the study that is a mixed research. The researcher applied a case study research design since it targeted a particular institution, Bishop Stuart University. The researcher carried out a case study since it is appropriate when investigating a particular institution. The questionnaires, interview guides, and the observation guides were used in data collection necessary designing a virtual reference service system for Bishop Stuart University Library. The response rate of students was 88.7%, for the lecturers, it was 81.5% and for the librarians, the response rate was 87.5%. The study findings revealed that the library offers different reference services offered at bishop Stuart university library which included; seeking for direct reference services, visiting the library reference desk, using the library website that the library use to offer reference services and use social media. Different ways are used to offer the reference services to the library users through face to face interaction, by the use of emails, through phone calls, through the use of social media that is face book and twitter accounts. The challenges in offering reference services at Bishop Stuart University library and these were; long line at the reference desk, busy reference desk, few reference materials from the library, few reference workers, and the lack of a separate reference section. The recommendations of the study were; librarians should promote provision of good reference services, engaging library patrons in discussions about experiences related to their information needs and communication interest in every user‘s experiences, organize presentation of information.