user education

1. User Education in Theological
Institutions in South India
Yesan Sellan
Chief Librarian
South Asia Institute of
Advanced Christian Studies
(SAIACS), Bangalore
Email: yesans@gmail.com
Dr. Ally Sornam
Asso.Prof and HoD
DLIS, Bishop Heber College
Trichy - 620017
Email: allysornam@gmail.com

2. Introduction – User Education (UE)
• User education is offered to library users to help
themselves to meet their information needs.
• To find resources in the library
• To offer hands on experience on to search/use
catalogues
• User education often includes
• Seminars, lectures and workshops, handouts, video
tutorials and guided tours

3. User Education – Why?
• UE should enable users to become independent in
meeting their information needs
• Users’ information needs are complex and
dynamic
• Saves the time of the user
• Users required skills to locate information in
various formats.
• For optimal use of resources, esp electronic
resources

4. Review of literature
• Subash reddy and Krishnamurthy (2018) study noted
that 33% of the respondents preferred online tutorials
while 29% of respondents printed handouts on how to
use library.
• Ishappa Bandi and Ramarishnegowda (2016) noted that
58% of respondents didn’t attend the awareness
education programme due to lack of information, lack of
time. Of those attended the user education, 67% of
respondents found it beneficial.

5. Contd.,
• Lalith Wickramanayake (2016) study found that
existing user education programmes in Srilankan
Universities are not adequate and need to introduce
information literacy programmes. Further this study
recommended for collaboration between faculty members
and librarians for the success of the user education.
• Gladys Kwadzo (2015) study noted that faculty members
have contributed more to create awareness compared to
training sessions.

6. Objectives:
• To study the usefulness of user education among
theological faculty members in learning to use electronic
resources.
• To discover the perceived usefulness of library orientation
among faculty members
• To find the variance among various demographic
identifiers of the respondents and their perception of the
usefulness of user education in learning to use electronic
resources.
• To offer suggestions for improving user education.

7. Scope and Methodology
• Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from
958 faculty members teaching in 60 theological
institutions in South India.
• Faculty members teaching at Bachelor of Divinity and
above level were approached for data collection
• 450 questionnaires were filled in returned achieving
49.67% response rate.

8. Analysis and Interpretation
• Collected responses were analysed using SPSS version 24
• Summary of responses
Variable Subgroups Frequency Percent
Gender Male 390 86.7
Female 60 13.3
Total 450 100.0

9. Contd.,
• 38% of respondents belong to the age group
of 31-40 years, 48.9% of respondents are
Assistant Professors, 17.3% of respondents
teach in the areas of theology and ethics
department and 55% of respondents are
teaching at the graduate level.

10. Contd.,
• 63.3 % of female respondents, 66% (n=93) of
respondents belonging to the age group 41-50
years, 73% (n=46) of respondents with 16-20
years of experience, Professors (63.3%) and
Associate Professors (63.7%), respondents with a
doctorate degree, 63.3% of respondents living in
Kerala and 64.1% (n=159) of respondents teaching
at the graduate level have found library
orientation extremely helpful in learning to use
electronic resources.

11. Contd.,
• This suggests that faculty members who been
teaching for longer and who hold the highest
educational degree found library orientation
important in their teaching and research work.

13. One-way ANOVA
• There was a statistically significant difference between
the academic ranks of the respondents and their
perception on usefulness of library orientation, as
determined by one-way ANOVA (F(4,447) = 4.407, P
=0.013<0.05). This means that academic rank influences
the perceived usefulness of library orientation in learning
to use electronic resources.
• The mean score (2.4960) indicates that respondents with
the rank of Associate Professor rank have a higher
perception than those in the Assistant Professor category
and slightly higher than those who hold the rank of
Professor with a mean (0.0116) difference.

14. Contd.,
• There was a statistically significant difference between
the years of working experience of the respondents and
their perception of the usefulness of library orientation as
determined by one-way ANOV A (F(4,445) = 2.451, P
=0.045<0.05). This means that years of experience has
influence on the perception of usefulness of library
orientation in learning to use electronic resources. The
mean score (2.6032) indicates that respondents with 16-
20 years of experience have a positive perception of the
usefulness of library orientation in learning to use
electronic resources compared to those with few years of
experience as faculty member.

15. Contd.,
• There is a significant association between
respondents’ level of teaching and their perception
of the usefulness of library orientation in learning
to use electronic resources available in theological
libraries (X2 (4)=12.102, P=0.017<0.05).

16. Major findings:
• This study discovered that more than half (58.2%, n=262) of
the respondents found library orientation extremely helpful in
learning to use the electronic resources available in
theological libraries in South India, while 26% (n=117) of
respondents found it somewhat helpful and 15.8% (n=71) of
them found it slightly helpful.
• With regards to users’ rating of various library services,
library instruction was rated as good by 47.1% (n=212) of
respondents and 38.9% (n=175) rated it as acceptable while
14% of respondents expressed their disappointment by rating
it as poor.
• It is further observed from this study that 73% of respondents
with 16-20 years of experience as faculty have found library
instruction extremely helpful.

17. Contd.,
• Also it is noted that 66% (n=93) of respondents in the age
group of 41-50 years have found library orientation
helpful.
• 64.1% (n=159) of respondents teaching at the graduate
level found library orientation is extremely helpful.
• Of various services offered by libraries, user education
was rated as good by 47.1% (n=212) of respondents.
• There is a statistically significant association between
respondents’ level of teaching of respondents and their
perception about the usefulness of library orientation.

18. Contd.,
• There is a statistically significant variance
between respondents’ years of working experience
as faculty and their perception of the usefulness of
library orientation in learning to use electronic
resources.
• There is a statistically significant variance
between respondents’ designation of the
respondents and their perception of usefulness of
library orientation.

19. Conclusion and Suggestions
• This study suggests that user education offered at
theological institutions is extremely helpful to faculty
members in learning to use electronic resources.
• Respondents with higher educational qualifications, more
working experience and the highest academic rank have
found library orientation most helpful in learning to use
electronic resources.
• This study recommends that libraries should organize
regular library orientation sessions to create adequate
awareness among users and to promote the use of library
resources especially online resources.

20. Suggestions
• User education should be designed to receive feedback from
users for improving the training sessions.
• It is worthwhile to explore ways to collaborate with faculty
members to develop information literacy programmes in
theological institutions.
• Use of information communication technology tools for user
education, guided tours and short tutorials, short handouts
and guides will certainly increase the use of library resources
among its users.
• Library staff must be well-trained well in the use of modern
tools available, the administrators and faculty members of
theological institutions need to come forward to support the
development of information literacy programmes.

21. Limitation and further study
• This study was limited to the perception of the
respondents on usefulness of library orientation in
learning to use electronic resources. This study has not
addressed issues faced by respondents in user education.
• A further study on information literacy in theological
institutions in India would yield useful results to better
understand the current situation on information literacy
programmes.
• Also, a study on information literacy skills among
librarians in theological institutions will provide useful
information on their ability and suggest ways to improve
their skills.