Information needs by special disable users: Visual impaired students

Information needs is not a new term in the library field. Librarians need to identify the needs of their users in order to have a versatile and effective library collection and library services. There’s a lot of benefit in studying the information needs of a certain category of users, especially users with disabilities who are using the facilities and services at the University of Malaya Library (UML). There are few categories of students with disabilities at the University of Malaya (UM), however this research is focusing on visually impaired persons due to the huge number registered as students in UM with total of 48 students. Persons with disabilities have a special range and spectrum of information needs as a result of their limitations. Therefore, there are multitude of factors to consider, such as accessibility of the library services and library facilities, in order to achieve an equal opportunity in accessing information at the library. The role of the library changes as librarians need to be more sensitive and need to conduct more research on how to deal with the needs of the impaired users. The result of the survey will be a guideline for UML to improve the library services provided for this particular user group. As a conclusion, it is important to ensure that UML can provide special library services concerning this specific user group, thus ensuring “a library for everyone

Services to library users with disabilities

Special Disable Users (SDU) is one of the category of users that uses the library at the University of Malaya Library (UML). According to Act 658, people with disabilities shall have the right to the access to information, communication and technology on equal basis with people without disabilities (Persons with Disabilities Act 2008, Act 685).The purpose of this article is to highlight all the initiatives led by the University of Malaya Library (UML) to improve the library services for the visually impaired and physically handicapped students and staffs registered as library members. This initiative was taken to support the mission and vision of the university to produce quality research and knowledgeable students. Special facilities and services should be developed to help this category of user to use the library. A survey was conducted by the UML to identify the efficiency of each service provided to engage the library services with that specific group. The result of the survey will be the guideline for UML to improve the library services provided for that particular user group. As a conclusion, it is important to ensure that UML can provide special library services concerning the specific user group, thus ensuring “a library for everyone”