A digital library for Jinja Public Library

Abstract

The study was carried out to design a digital library for Jinja Public Library in order to address the information needs of the residents of Jinja Town. The purpose of the study was to design a digital library for the residents of Jinja Town at Jinja Public Library so as to address the information needs of the residents. The objectives of the study were; to establish the different information needs of the residents of Jinja Town, to establish the challenges faced by users of Jinja Public Library, to determine strategies to improve access to information at Jinja Public Library, to design a digital Library to improve access to information at Jinja Public Library. A case study research design, both qualitative and quantitative data approaches were used. The project study targeted a population of 75 from which a sample size of 63 was determined and involved 10 library staff and 53 library users. Both questionnaires and interview guide were used as data collection methods where by six questionnaires were issued to the library staff and four were interviewed making a total of ten library staff, thirty questionnaires were issued to library users and twenty-three were interviewed making a total of fifty-three library users and it was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Major findings revealed that the Jinja Public Library is not a digital library and they disseminate information manually to library users. It was also revealed that users have different information needs; humanitarian information needs such information concerning human being, health of people, study information needs (information concerning education that users need). Findings also revealed the Challenges faced during the accessibility of the manual collection by the library users; Limited access to information, It takes a lot of time during the accessibility of information, It requires physical visiting of the library, A lot of time is spent in searching for information resources in the manual collection, Not knowing where the needed information resources are located in the shelves, Long distances moved to the library and limited time offered to users by the library staff. From the findings, it was concluded that a lot of time is spent in searching for information resources manually and this increases the problem of different information needs by the users. The study therefore recommends Jinja Public Library to adopt the proposed system to address the information needs of the residents of Jinja Town in order to provide a centralized mean of disseminating information to the users.