Current Awareness Program of Saint Louis University: An Assessment Based on Users’ Perception

Diaron, Rina Hemedez (2004). Current Awareness Program of Saint Louis University: An Assessment Based on Users’ Perception. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. University of the Philippines, Diliman, Q.C.

The Problem

The study looked into the methods of current awareness services being employed in Saint Louis University Library as perceived by the library users composed of the non-teaching personnel, faculty members, and students. It also looked into the basic requirements of the different methods of current awareness services and the various perceptions of library users with regard to the availability of current awareness services as an alerting service.

Methodology

The descriptive method was used with the survey questionnaire and unstructured interviews as the research instruments. The respondents of the study included seven (7) non-teaching personnel, thirteen (13) faculty members, seventeen (17) graduate students, and three hundred fifty eight (358) undergraduate students. In the interpretation of data, the weighted mean was used.

Conclusions

1. Bulletin boards play an important role in extending the level of current awareness services;

2. Methods of current awareness services are not widely read nor scanned by library users; and

3. The library users’ “library literature” or the commitment to find time in keeping up to date is not very good.

Recommendations

1. Bulletin board should include recent events annotated list of new books, table of contents, and abstracts of newly published and unpublished library materials;

2. Technological advances should be introduced and utilized in commencing methods to library users in order to encourage members to make use of recent information;

3. Newsletter, organized and written by the University Library, should exist to keep the library user’s readership up to date;

4. “Ball game” technique can be used to increase the chance of journal routing wherein each client returns the issue to the library after reading it then sends the issue to the next client on the list. Six people on a circulation list are a useful maximum;

5. Provide comprehensive orientation on current awareness services to library users in terms of its functions and significance on their fields of interests;

6. Develop document delivery in order to be more responsive to the needs of the profession;

7. Librarians dedicated to supplying information to other members of the academe should be knowledgeable in information handling and dissemination;

8. For further study, inclusion of new methods of current awareness services in Saint Louis University Library and assessment of needs based on the different college departments.