User education programs in Indonesian state academic libraries : a case study of the Central Java and DI Yogyakarta Provinces

Libraries and librarians are now surrounded by an increasingly large amount of subject literatures in different formats and basins, and technologies, such as OPAC, CD-ROM, laser disks, library internet, books on disk and so on. Consequently, users have to be taught how to access and use information if they are to search independently and satisfactorily. In the midst of the information revolution, librarians as information providers and as teachers face a considerable challenge. This study reacted to the survey conducted by the Indonesian National Library, and investigated some problems facing the implementation and development of the user education programs within the Central Java and DI Yogyakarta state academic libraries in Indonesia. The six general areas investigated were (a) the library environment and library users; (b) user education agendas and their implementation; (c) persons responsible for user education and their perception of it; ( d) teaching methods and media used; ( e) evaluation of the programs; (f) and problems in user education. Three principal methodologies were used: surveying library documents, distributing questionnaires to the central and faculty libraries, and interviewing staff responsible for user education. This study should help to improve future user education programs. The study found that user education practised in these institutions faced a number of problems and difficulties in their implementation and development. These included no \written\" user education policy staff shortages little literature on librarianship supports and funding coordination timing and duration number of recipients university and faculty involvement. Some recommendations are made in this thesis."