Page 157 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Foundation of Library and Information Science

Notes
Further, 13 purposeful biased sample of the space technologists (other than those who
visited library for a very short time for an issue or return transactions or for indenting or
collecting xerox copies) were observed during January 1985 for their movement within
the library. In this observation, on an average, a user spent 58 minutes on a visit to the
library in 4 to 5 units out of 13 such units within the library. The mapping of users’
movement indicated that, by and large, the users moved in near critical path avoiding zig
zag movements (except when they deliberately wanted to pay repeated visits to a particular
unit). Eight out of the 13 only moved on to mezzanine floor and three of them came down
to ground floor for use of books and reports and to make enquiries at the circulation
counter. The users have often made more than one entry/interaction/visit to the following
units: circulation counter, book stack and reading area for books and reports.

Table 1 presents the average user visits to ten service areas (units) within the library
together with average length of stay. As could be seen from the table, book stack and
circulation counter have accounted for more than half of the total visits (56.8%). Display of
new arrivals and reading area for books and reports have been moderately visited by the
users. A maximum average time of 27.1 minutes per visit has been spent at the display of
new arrivals of journals and current journals followed by 20 minutes in the reading area
for books and reports and 16 minutes in the bound journals, standards, reprints and
product catalogues unit.

Table 1: User-Visits to Service Areas within the Library and Length of Stay

SI. Service Area Average No. of user- Percentage of Average length of
No. visits per day Total visits stay (in minutes)
1. Circulation counter 170.2 27.7 3.1
2. Reprographics service 17.3 2.8
3. Micrographics unit 3.0 0.5 NA
4. Card catalogues 32.0 5.2 8.0
5. Report stack 6.4 1.0 10.0
6. Book Stack 178.8 29.1 12.0
7. Reading area (books & 67.0 10.9 20.0
reports)
8. Display of new arrivals 82.5 13.4 5.3
(books, reports &
standards)
9. Display of new arrivals 44.5 7.3 27.1
(Journals) and current
journals
10. Bound journals, 12.0 2.0 16.0
standards, reprint &
product catalogues
Total 613.7 99.9

Key: NA, Not available
About 30 randomly selected Indian space technologists were observed for their length of
stay in the library during December 84 and January 85. Counting was done from the time
the user stepped into the library till the time he stepped out. In order to consider serious
in-house users, all those who visited either for reprographic service or exclusively to
select and borrow documents were excluded. As such no one in the sample had spent less
than 20 minutes.
Contd....

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