User Education Programs in Academic Libraries: The Experience of the International Islamic University Malaysia Students

The library supports the reading and research needs for that particular institution. It is the library\u27s responsibility to provide better services to its clients to make sure that information sources, services and resources are well utilized for user benefits; hence user education program is very crucial for user\u27s achievement. The aim of this paper is to identify perception of user education program at International Islamic University (IIUM) library, to identify Module of user education program at IIUM library and to develop searching skills for users. The descriptive survey is adopted for the study. The population is Undergraduate and Postgraduate students of IIUM, because of the time constraint the researcher selected sample of 75 students from a number of different faculties / kulliyah using the Krejcie and Morgan formula. Information was gathered using a questionnaire of 17 questions. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics, mean, variance, and charts. The result of the survey shows that users are in favor of various programs due to their adaptability, online public access catalogue and easy access to several sources of information. For library services to keep pace with the needs of students, library should increase number of employees\u27 expert and skillful librarians who can provide user education programs Library should make user education training compulsory for all faculties, and provide them with instructional material to present to students as suggested by respondents that postgraduate students should attend user education classes. There is no doubt that the user education program brought a positive change to the respondents\u27 behavior towards library use, considering their previous back ground. This survey reveals that there are active librarians who can contribute on user education and increase the number of users with satisfactory library skills