A digital library for St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School, Nsambya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to design a digital library for St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School, Nsambya Library. The objectives of the were to; identify the information needs of library users, identify the challenges in accessing information materials, identify the information materials that are suitable for development of a digital library and to design a digital library for St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School Nsambya. A case study research design was employed while adopting both qualitative and quantitative research approaches of data collection. Data was collected using face-to-face interview, questionnaire and observation methods. Purposive sampling and stratified sampling methods were used to select 2 librarians and 28 students who participated in the study. The needs of the library users for information resources in the library were; revision purposes complete their assignments, and exercises left, to get up dated with the current news. The study found out that the different information resources accessible in SPENSA Library were; text books, past papers and questions banks, handouts and pamphlets, maps and photographs and electronic resources. The challenges included; unreliable electricity, poor network connectivity, storage problems, unawareness about the existing sources of information, inadequate support staff, lack of up to date information in some fields of specialization, inadequate information resources, delay in delivery of current information via email, sometimes information is not readily available. The proposed solutions to the challenges were; training of the library users on the use of ICTs, regular acquisition of up to date information resources, increasing the funds for the library, and using social media. The study concluded that implementation of a digital library for St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School, Nsambya would help librarians alert the library users about the new information resources acquired in the school library. The study recommended that St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School, Nsambya should implement a digital library in order to promote access to library services.