Guideline for provision of Web-Based Current Awareness Services for LDC Library

Abstract

The study was carried out at Law Development Center Library. The aim of the study was to design a guideline for provision of web-based current awareness services in order to improve on the current methods used by the institution to help patrons get easy access to alerts about new publications brought to the library at their convenience. The objectives that guided the project were to identify different library resources at LDC library Uganda, to examine current web-based CAS at LDC library, to examine challenges facing the provision of web-based CAS at LDC library and to design guidelines for provision of web-based current awareness services that would address challenges associated with the current system. The researcher used a qualitative research design and this sought to describe the findings in details. The researcher interviewed a total of six library staffs and they all responded. The methods used to collect data included interviews and observation accompanied by their respective instruments it also involved data analysis and ethical considerations. Major findings of the study were identified according to the respondent’s views over library services provided for example electronic resources, manual book, web-based current awareness services provided by the library e.g. personalized services and email alerts, challenges faced with the provision of web-based current awareness system for example poor internet network, poor power supply and lack of enough IT skills and the benefits of having a web based current awareness service e.g. getting Facebook alerts on users Facebook page. The proposed guidelines for web-based current awareness system for LDC library was designed following the findings from chapter four. Conclusions were drawn according to the research findings of the study whereby majority of the respondents said that the web-based current awareness system would benefit them since it is online based. The researcher recommended that LDC library should adopt the proposed guidelines.