Evaluation of Library Resources: A Study of Sir Arku Korsah Law Library, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract

Two years after the establishment of the Sir Arku Korsah Law Library in the Faculty of Law, KNUST-Kumasi, Ghana, there is the need to evaluate services provided to its patrons in order to continually improve upon them. The study was therefore aimed at evaluating the library’s resources and services to students of the Faculty of Law, KNUST, and the Ghana School of Law, Kumasi Campus. Designed questionnaire with self-explanatory closed and open-ended questions on the library use and the library’s computer facility among others were administered to 112 students (obtained by convenience sampling) in a cross-sectional quantitative survey at the library, KNUST. Questionnaire responses were analyzed and plotted using SigmaPlot 11. Seventy four students (66.07%) indicated they visit the library either daily or two to three times a week, nineteen students (16.96% ) visit the library between once a week and once a month, and nineteen (16.96 %) visit during examination period. Facilities mostly used are reference books (36.6%). Sixty four (57.1%) students use the library for reference and reading only, while thirty two (28.5%) come in to use the computer facility and sixteen (14.4%) to make photocopy. Fiftyone percent accessed the computer facility once or twice a week. Ninety nine students (88%) endorse the presence of the ICT section in the Library and describe it as a vital service for research work. Seventy one (63%) indicate that the library is not friendly to the physically challenged. In conclusion, the reference and the ICT sections need to be expanded and services improved.

Keywords: Electronic Information, Reference books, Reading and Research, Law Library