An electronic user education system for College of Computing and Information Science (CoCIS) Library in Makerere University, Kampala

Abstract

The study aimed at designing an electronic user education system for College of Computing and Information Science (CoCIS) library. The objectives of the study were to; identify the status of user education programs, establish challenges encountered in offering the programs, review the existing literature on electronic user education system to document system requirements, system design and implementation of an electronic user education system for College of Computing and Information Science (CoCIS) library. The study employed a descriptive research design while adopting both qualitative and quantitative research approaches in collecting data. Use of questionnaires, interviews and observation were techniques of data collection used because of the nature of study. Both purposive and convenience methods were used to select 2 Librarians and 44 students respectively who participated in the study. The study findings showed that majority of the respondents agreed that library orientation was the most popular user education program while limited facilities was the challenge often faced by library users. The study findings proved that CoCIS library use a variety of methods in offering user education programs which include individualized library instructions, library guided tours and reference services to mention but a few. While as the product of the study pointed out some challenges like outbreak of covid-19 pandemic, limited knowledge by the library staff, negative attitude by library users and limited resources. Based on the findings of the study identified concerning manual user education programs at CoCIS library, this study concluded that developing and implementing an electronic user education system for the library to enhance and improve library instructions at College of Computing and Information Science library. Therefore, recommendations for the study were; use of social media networks, use of notice boards, organizing of periodic workshop training for library staff and lastly implementation of the developed electronic user education system for CoCIS library.