Strategies of Facilitating Usage of County Assembly Libraries: A Case of Kakamega County Assembly Library, Kenya.
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Date
2023
Authors
Rapando, Victor Aswani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
The strategies adopted by a library to promote and enhance the usage of its
information resources are critical in ensuring that its target in terms of mission and
vision is achieved. Usage of libraries in legislative settings has hardly been
examined in the mainstream literature prompting this study. The purpose of the
study was to assess the strategies of promoting and enhancing the usage of county
assembly libraries with particular reference to Kakamega County Assembly Library
in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to; determine the extent of usage of
Kakamega County Assembly library and services by MCAs, find out the perception
of MCAs towards Kakamega County Assembly library and services, find out
promotional strategies by Kakamega County Assembly to enhance usage of the
library by MCAs and to establish the challenges encountered in enhancing the usage
of Kakamega County Assembly library and services. The study was ground upon
access, capacity and environment framework and adopted a descriptive research
design. The target population was 91 MCAs, 3 library staff and the clerk of the
county assembly whereas the sample size was 77 respondents. Simple random
sampling technique was used to select MCAs whereas purposive sampling was used
to select the library staff and the clerk of the county assembly. Questionnaire was
used for data collection from the MCAs and the library staff. Interview technique
was used to collect data from the clerk of the county assembly. Quantitative data
was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for
Social Sciences and presented graphically and in tabular form. Qualitative data was
analyzed thematically and presented through narrations. The findings established
that while the general perception of the MCAs towards library services and
resources at KCA was not favourable, they acknowledged the importance of the
library. It was also revealed that the library was underutilized as only 12 MCAs had
patronized the library and this could ostensibly be attributed to the location of the
library which is not within the same precincts where main activities related to
functions of MCAs occur. Further, the findings revealed that the preferred sources
of information for the MCAs who patronized the library were government
documents, legislative documents and newspapers. In addition, the study established
that promotional approaches or strategies that are in form of events are considered
as the most effective strategies for enhancing usage of the library. The study
recommended that KCA should ensure all services are centrally provided within the
same precincts for ease of MCAs to patronize the library for the resources and
services. The study also recommended that KCA should engage in rigorous
marketing strategies for library services including but not limited to opportunistic
approach, presentations, library tours, producing a leaflet or a guide about services
in the library and induction programme for new MCAs. Lastly, the study
recommend that KCA should consider rolling out remote access services to
facilitate the technologically savvy MCAs to patronize library resources and
services without necessarily being physically present in the library. This study
contributes to the body of knowledge particularly in as far legislative libraries in the
county assemblies in Kenya is concerned. Furthermore, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature on parliamentary and legislative libraries
that is very limited.
Description
A Research Project Submitted for Award of the Degree of Master of Library and Information Science in School of Education, Kenyatta University, April 2023.
Keywords
County Assembly Libraries, Kakamega County Assembly Library, Kenya