Use of Library and Library Resources in University Libraries of Northern India: A Comparative Study between Research Scholars and Faculty Members

The purpose of the study was to investigate research scholars (RS) and faculty members (FM) involvement in use of library, library resources, purpose behind using them and satisfaction from the resources in five university libraries of Northern India. The representative samples were selected based on sample size given by Krejcie and Morgan (1970). The representative sample was formed by taking 15% of respondents from each category from each university. The ‘Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling Technique’ was used. The data collected was analyzed with the help of statistical software package called SPSS and hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square test. The study was limited to five universities libraries of Northern India. No significant relationship was found in frequency of visit to the library between the research scholars (RS) and faculty members (RM) across the libraries. RS spent more time in their respective libraries as compared to FM and library is the prominent place for reading in the opinion of RS, whereas FM visited their respective libraries for circulation purpose. A significant difference was found between RS and FM about availability of required resources, information sources used by them except non-book materials, whereas a significant relationship was found in opinion of RS and FM satisfaction from the library collection. The findings will help the library authorities to understand the pattern of use of their library, purpose of visit, information sources consulted, reasons for use of print and e-resources and satisfaction from their respective collections between RS and FM