Information skills training : a comparative study of end-user delivery methods among three public university libraries in the Federal Territory and Selangor

Abstract

This study investigates the delivery methods practised by the public university libraries in delivering user education programme. The main objective of this study was to find out the differences and similarities between the selected university libraries in terms of types of delivery methods used, preferred delivery methods and problems faced by library end-users and librarians. The population of the study comprised of undergraduate students and librarians (in-charge of training) in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). These libraries were located in the Wilayah Persekutuan and Selangor. Data was gathered through formal interviews with the librarians (in-charge of training) and library users. The major findings of this study showed that there were four types of delivery methods practised in the three selected public university libraries. These methods were lecture with hands-on, one-to-one instructions, classroom lectures and point of use. Furthermore, students and also librarians preferred lectures with hands-on as their delivery method. This study also found that there were several problems faced by the students and librarians during the training which can be categorized as technical and human problems. The findings of this study may be used as guidelines for libraries to improve their training programme in the future.