An E-refernce services system for the Office of the Prime Minister Resource Centre

Abstract

The main purpose of this project was to examine the current problems faced by the users and the librarians while using and providing reference services respectively hence coming up with the design of an E-reference service system. The objectives of the study were to: identify the information needs of users at the OPM Resource Center, establish how reference services are currently provided by the OPM Resource Center, identify the challenges faced in providing the current reference services at the OPM Resource Center and design an E-Reference services system for Office of the Prime Minister Resource Center. The sample size composed of 47 respondents, 2 reference librarians, 40 resource center users and 5 Library staff. During data analysis and presentation, data was analyzed using the different data process that enabled the researchers to eliminate any erroneous data. The study used interviews, questionnaire, observation methods and document review for data collection. The findings revealed that the services offered include reading rooms, referencing services, computer services and the challenges they faced in provision of reference service included outdated reference materials, time inconvenience, fewer reference materials, lack of seating space and lack of space in the resource center. The findings also revealed that there is need for reference services. In conclusion, the proposed E-reference service system is better, since it will improve on the way reference services are provided to the OPM users. However, it can work hand in hand with the current module of reference service provision. The researchers conclude that the main purpose of an E-reference service system was to serve global users, those people that can’t come physically to the Library, and professionals that are always busy in order to make the Library reference section accessed at any time of the day. The research recommended that the management of Office of the Prime Minister Resource Center should adopt the proposed E-reference service system and the library staff should be trained on how to use the system to be able to meet the needs of the users. The researchers should provide guidelines to the Library staff about the entire set up of the system right from the login to the report and how to be able to get the final output. The researchers recommend that the library users should provide correct information about themselves for the library staff to print out the lists of registered Library users and to be contacted in case of an emergency. The researchers recommend that the Library staff should be trained on how to use the proposed system to avoid debugging during the registration process.