National Library of Malaysia Annual Report 2001

This Annual Report reflects the PNM activities during 2001, to support their vision,"The National Library of Malaysia aspires to be a world class library in the provision of excellent information services towards the realization of Malaysia's vision of becoming an industrialised and developed nation by the year 2020." and mission,"To ensure that all Malaysians have equal access to library services and facilities as well the ability to utilise Malaysian and universal intellectual heritage knowledge through a national infrastructure of integrated electronic libraries.

National Library of Malaysia Annual Report 2001

This Annual Report reflects the PNM activities during 2001, to support their vision,"The National Library of Malaysia aspires to be a world class library in the provision of excellent information services towards the realization of Malaysia's vision of becoming an industrialised and developed nation by the year 2020." and mission,"To ensure that all Malaysians have equal access to library services and facilities as well the ability to utilise Malaysian and universal intellectual heritage knowledge through a national infrastructure of integrated electronic libraries.

A comparative study of interlibrary loan functions and the development of a model interlibrary loan network among academic libraries in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this study was to survey and analyse the condition of the present system of academic libraries, defined in this study as the seven university libraries, in Saudi Arabia; determine the perceptions of academic libraries in Saudi Arabia toward cooperation and design a model interlibrary loan network (ILLN) for the academic libraries of Saudi Arabia.............A document review, questionnaire survey and structured interview were used for data collection......Major findings are that six out of seven libraries do not meet the ACRL standards in respect of collections....all seven inducated that they cooperated with all other academic libraries but did not borrow / lend materials or only occasionally. ............This study proposed that an ILLN that will both be a distributed and centralized network in which academic libraries will coordinate and communicate directly with each other......Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1995

User perception of academic library service quality and value: the case of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and Ashesi University College libraries

This study explored the users' perception of the service quality and value of the libraries of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) and Ashesi University College (AUC). Concepts like value, impact, quality, academic library service quality formed the conceptual framework of the study. The study is a comparative case study that solicited information from the perspectives of students, faculty and library staff. Open and closeended questions were adopted to gather data from 185 and 147 third year students of GIJ and AUC respectively. All library staff and 15 faculty staff each from the two institutions were interviewed to augment the responses from the students. Statistical Package for Social Science was used to analyse the closed-ended questions and descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to present the data analysis. Data from the interviews and open-ended questions were analysed qualitatively. Findings from the study showed that the libraries were used more frequently by students than by faculty staff. The perceptions of the quality of library staff services were found to be satisfactory in both libraries. The library environment and information resources were considered adequate by AUC library users, whereas they were considered as inadequate and poor at GIJ. In all, it was found that the quality of services and the value users derived from AUC exceeds that at GIJ. The most valued aspects of the libraries were the library collections, and the friendliness and willingness of library staff to assist users. It was also found that users derived a number of benefits from using the libraries, but the libraries had no specific guidelines for measuring their value. In the past, value had been determined by the use of the library resources and success stories of users. The study considered the nature of library value and made recommendations for improving library services

Development constraints: the public library sector in Malaysia

Although subscription libraries have existed in Malaysia since 1817, it was only in 1968, about ten years after independence that the Government adopted the Blueprint for Public Library Development in Malaysia. Since then, all but one of the States in Peninsular Malaysia have adopted public library legislation and have established State Public Library Corporations. Despite this, overall provisions are patchy and uneven and the greater bulk of the population still do not have access to public library services. Government authorities are quite concerned over this state of affairs as it is increasingly being realized that libraries can be an important instrument for economic and social upliftment, particularly of the country's largely rural population. The main purpose of the thesis therefore has been to identify the major constraints to overall development, to suggest measures to the Malaysian Government likely to place public library services on a firm foundation and to offer particularly to the developing countries some useful insights, based on Malaysia's experience in the field. Particularly significant is the fact that a Public Library Policy for the country endorsed at the highest levels of Government, does not exist. Legislative provisions too are not only inadequate but are conflicting in some respects. While both the Federal and State Governments have legislative competence for public libraries, the question of executive responsibility has never been clearly determined. Existing financial provisions place too heavy a burden on State Governments, whose sources of revenue, in most cases are strictly limited. The absence of long term development plans is a further inhibiting factor while manpower provisions, especially at the professional level are grossly inadequate. It is suggested that a Federal Act for Public Libraries is of cardinal importance. The Act should enshrine the public library policy for the country, place the subject of public libraries within the portfolio of a Federal Minister, equip the National Library with the required authority and make adequate provisions for finance and manpower

Library leadership and succession planning in Vietnam

Libraries in Vietnam have seen a marked change in the process of selecting leaders. In the past, the head of a library was appointed by the higher rank leaders from the parent organisation. Selection of library leaders is now a more democratic process. This change presents several challenges for consideration in the development of qualified cohorts of future library leaders. Underpinned by transformational leadership theory, this study examines library leadership and succession planning in Vietnam by investigating existing succession planning in Mekong Delta libraries; examining how library leaders have dealt with succession planning challenges over the past decade; and positing a theoretical model for the succession planning process. This study utilised a case study multi-method approach in all of the thirteen public libraries and four selected academic libraries in the Mekong Delta through two phases. An online survey was first conducted with 172 respondents. Data from this phase were analysed and informed the second phase, which involved in-depth interviews with twenty-three senior managers and board of director members. The research findings revealed that succession planning is very important and necessary due to its dual benefits for employees and libraries. However, most general staff members have not personally participated in library succession planning. The findings also showed that various factors influence succession planning, including the impact of the Communist Party of Vietnam. This study contributes a theoretical model of a succession planning process to the knowledge of library succession planning. Understanding the role of the Communist Party, the required elements of library succession planning and the steps following the process provide insights into the nature of succession planning as a process of leadership and professional growth. This study suggests that library leaders should maximise the participation of general staff in succession planning so as to help prevent bias. Insights into the implementation of succession planning in the Mekong Delta also suggest implications and recommendations for library leaders, parent organisation leaders, and policy makers in a broader context

Academic Library consortia in Vietnam: Historical Context, current state and the prospect for development

This research investigates whether Vietnam—a developing country with limited experience of library cooperation—is able to use consortia as a means of improving access to academic library content and services. The research uses a mixed methods approach, consisting of a questionnaire and interviews, to collect data addressing the research question: Are library consortia suited as a means of cooperation by Vietnamese academic libraries, and if so how can they be successfully developed and implemented

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia