Perception of postgraduate students towards the quality of library services provided at mzuzu university

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of postgraduate students towards the provision of quality library services by the Mzuzu University Library and Learning Resource Centre. The objectives of the study were to: find out postgraduate students’ level of satisfaction with the services provided by the Mzuzu University Library and Learning Resource Centre; ascertain postgraduate students’ perception of staff attitude towards library clients, and determine postgraduate students’ expectations of the Mzuzu University Library and Learning Resource Centre environment. The study was guided by positivism paradigm in which quantitative approaches were used. Data was collected using questionnaire. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.1. LIBQUAL+ instrument was employed as the guiding theory. LIBQUAL+ is one of the tools that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users’ opinion of service quality rendered. Out of 128 postgraduate students, 81 responded, which generated an overall respondent rate of 62%. The questionnaire was pre-tested on 5 Polytechnic Postgraduate students. The pilot test helped to take note of some problems such as the average time it would have taken for one to complete the questionnaire. From the findings of this study, it is evident that the Mzuni Library and Learning Resource Centre is providing quality services to a certain extent. However, while the majority of the postgraduate students indicated their satisfaction with the library services such as good printed material, and the provision of information skills, there was a small group of respondents that expressed dissatisfaction with the services, and this called for some improvements to be made. The services that need improvement included remote login and accessing of the electronic resources via the website. Relative to postgraduate students’ perception of staff attitude towards library clients, the study found out that the postgraduate students had a positive perception because they were getting the desired attention from the library clients. Finally, the study also established that postgraduate students had varied levels of expectations regarding the Mzuni Library and Learning Resource Center environment. For example, sufficient lighting; a quiet library environment, and a secure library environment had higher expectations and postgraduate students were happy because the library met their expectations.