Information needs of public library users in Ermelo, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
Mngomezulu, Sakhile Victor
Public libraries are a vital asset in any society and have become institutions of knowledge in communities. Residents, schools without libraries, small businesses and non-profit organisations make use of public libraries to access information on daily basis. Funding is a major challenge in public libraries hindering the promotion of access to information. The acquisition of resources is slightly hampered, and this has a major impact on the relevancy, accuracy and frequency on the information provided by public libraries. Well-resourced and fully functional public libraries are more important and useful in societies, hence the provision of access to quality information to the users. In any society, access to information is very important for scholars, the working class and for knowledge sharing purposes. Public libraries will always be crucial in making access and sharing of information much easier.
The purpose of the study was to investigate the information needs of public library users in Ermelo, Mpumalanga province, South Africa. With fully functional public libraries in societies, access to information is guaranteed. Public libraries are still lagging because of a shortage of resources, and do not have enough funds to acquire the best resources to boost access to information. The study was limited to the main public library in the Msukaligwa local Municipality in Ermelo, Mpumalanga.
This study was underpinned by the Abraham Maslow information needs theory to address public library user needs in Ermelo. Both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches were adopted to study the information needs of public library users in Ermelo. The research design used in this study was mainly survey. Quantitative data were collected with the use of self-administered questionnaires by 206 public library users and an interview schedule was used to collect qualitative data from four library staff members.
More than half (121, 58.7%) of the respondents indicated that public libraries play a vital role in ensuring that both learners and teachers have access to educational resources to meet their information needs. The study recommends that the government should revise the funding policy for public libraries and provide all the support that public libraries need to provide quality information services. The study also recommends that public libraries need to work closely as a collective to ensure that information resources are shared among them to make sure that all information needs of the users are met.
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