User Perception of Library Services in Public Libraries in Western Tamilnadu with special reference to Salem District: a Case Study

Public libraries are always called ‘People’s University’ as it provides education to all and to improve Information literacy, empowerment, and cultural heritage. Public libraries facilitate a variety of services to the user community. This study has made an attempt to investigate the current trends of user perception in terms of library services and availability of resources in public libraries in western Tamilnadu particularly in District Central Public Library at Salem. This study tried to focus to evaluate regarding the gender and age wise distribution, Marital status and Educational qualifications, Occupation wise distribution, and Membership status, Residence wise distribution, Availability of library resources, Frequency of Library visit, and Time spent in Library, Purpose of visiting the Library, Information search pattern, Level of satisfaction about Journals / Magazines, and Level of satisfaction regarding Internet services, and Opinion about overall library services etc. For data analysis, a total number of 200 well-designed questionnaires were selected and distributed to the user community who are coming to Salem district public library. Out of 200 samples, we received only 186 dully filled questionnaires were returned. Further, the data has been worked out with relevant statistical tools such as simple percentage and average and so on