Preservation guidelines for information resources in St.Lawrence university Lubaga :A manual

Abstract

The study was carried out to come up with guidelines for preservation of information resources for St. Lawrence University. The objectives of the study were; to assess the current status of preservation of information resources in St. Lawrence University Library, to find out factors affecting deterioration of SLAUL information resources, to identify the need for preservation of information resources, to find out barriers to effective preservation of information resources and to design guidelines responsible for effective preservation of information resources in SLAUL. A case study research design and qualitative data approach were used. The project study targeted a population of 110 from which a sample size of 86 was determined and involved 4 librarians 9 lectures and 73 students. Data was collected using question using questionnaires, interviews and observation methods and it was qualitatively analyzed. Major findings revealed that the school library does not have guidelines for preservation of information resources to guide their staff on management of library resources .it was also revealed that books are the most issued out library resources therefore academic information is the main information need of library users. The services provided by the library include reference services, current awareness services as the study indicates. In addition, the study revealed that the library uses tradition methods of preservation. The traditional methods can prove to be a challenge for both the school staff and the students associated with challenges like, long lines, time consumption; it is tiresome and difficult to maintain statistics with the manual system. From the findings, it was concluded that a lot of time is wasted during writing down the library resources manually in books. The study therefore recommends St. Lawrence University library to adopt the proposed guidelines for preservation of information resources to provide a centralized means of managing library resources