Factors that affect the accessibility and utilization of resources in selected Kenya Armed Forces College Libraries.

Abstract

It is often assumed that once a library has resources and has opened its doors to serve patrons, there will automatically be ardent users. Unfortunately this is not true and such resources may not be used to the optimum. With colossal amount of public resources put into the Kenya Armed Forces (KAF) college libraries, this is unfortunate. This study sought to investigate the problems that hinder the accessibility and utilization of NDC and DSC library's information resources and suggest how they can be minimized. The objectives of the study were to: • Establish patron's perception and rating of library resources and services in NDC and DSC. • Establish the major reasons for using the library. • Find out other libraries used by the patrons. • Identify information seeking strategy used by the users. • Identify usage and user satisfaction with the two libraries. The study used descriptive survey method of research.Three sets of questionnaires were administered to patrons, teaching staff and,library staff at NDC and DSC. The researcher also visited the two libraries for direct observation of the library facilities. The data collected was coded and analyzed using the SPSS computer software. The findings revealed that all the patrons perceived the library as important to their college.The patrons used the library for borrowing, researching for projects, and preparing lecture notes. The patrons were found to be using other libraries and information sources such as UON and UNEP. The problems that faced the libraries were'low speed of Internet and/or computers, lack of seating space and low state of library interior furnishing like furniture.The library staff were found to be lacking professional qualifications for these libraries and this led to their passive nature. Most of the patrons located materials through the librarians as opposed to a small percentage that used the catalogue. User education was also severely lacking. It is recommended that the library staff should be trained to match their tasks, ICT resources should be improved especially OPAC, access to online databases and participation in consortia be initiated, more computers purchased, Internet bandwidth be improved and comprehensive user education covering ICT and other formats of information sources be introduced.