MODELLING STUDENT’S SATISFACTION WITH LIBRARY SERVICES IN A TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM KUMASI POLYTECHNIC

An effective and efficient academic library system can significantly contribute to student and other user’s development in a wider perspective. This paper seeks to determine the satisfaction level of students with respect to the available reading materials and the services provided by the school library officials. Using a survey data obtained from students using the Kumasi Polytechnic library, the overall service satisfaction model was specified using ordinal logistic regression. Among the sampled students, 57%, 30.8%, 6.7% and 4.3% of them believes that the overall service quality is good, moderate, excellent and poor respectively. Also from the estimated model, the overall service quality decreases when students are less satisfied with the individual service components. In general, the estimated model suggest that among all the variables, availability of current and relevant materials; adequate user instructions; reliable internet facilities as well as friendly and helpful library staff are the first four (4) library service segments that highly influenced the students ratings for overall service quality. Keywords: Ghana, Kumasi Polytechnic, Library Services, Student Satisfaction, Ordinal logit model

Evaluation of geostatistical estimators and their applicability to characterise the spatial patterns of recreational fishing catch rates

Western Australians are heavily engaged in recreational fishing activities with a participation rate of approximately 30%. An accurate estimation of the spatial distribution of recreational catch per unit effort (catch rates) is an integral component for monitoring fish population changes and to develop strategies for ecosystem-based marine management. Geostatistical techniques such as kriging can provide useful tools for characterising the spatial distributions of recreational catch rates. However, most recreational fishery data are highly skewed, zero-inflated and when expressed as ratios are impacted by the small number problem which can influence the estimates obtained from the traditional kriging. The applicability of ordinary, indicator and Poisson kriging to recreational catch rate data was evaluated for three aquatic species with different behaviours and distribution patterns. The prediction performance of each estimator was assessed based on cross-validation. For all three species, the accuracy plot of the indicator kriging (IK) showed a better agreement between expected and empirical proportions of catch rate data falling within probability intervals of increasing size, as measured by the goodness statistic. Also, indicator kriging was found to be better in predicting the latent catch rate for the three species compared to ordinary and Poisson kriging. For each species, the spatial maps from the three estimators displayed similar patterns but Poisson kriging produced smoother spatial distributions. We show that the IK estimator may be preferable for the spatial modelling of catch rate data exhibiting these characteristics, and has the best prediction performance regardless of the life history and distribution patterns of those three species

Spatial characterisation of demersal scalefish diversity based on recreational fishing data

Information on fish species diversity is important to monitor changes and maintain sustainability in multispecies fisheries. However, examination of species diversity often ignores spatial patterns, yet it is influenced by spatially structured ecological processes. Such information is important for identifying areas of high conservation value for individual species, taxonomic groups or the entire ecosystem. In this study, the spatial distribution of West Coast demersal scalefish diversity in Western Australia was characterized based on recreational fishing data collected through two off-site phone-diary surveys. Using multivariate indicator cokriging, the effect of fishing effort and measurement uncertainty was considered in the characterisation. The study found that teleost species from Families Epinephelidae, Glaucosomatidae and Sparidae were the most common, with the relative contribution of 77% and 71% to the total catch in 2011/12 and 2013/14, respectively. In addition, maps of diversity indices showed that high diversity was located at the south-central parts of the study area and increased near the coast with some patchiness at the southern part. Spatial maps can be helpful when site-specific management is aimed at maintaining a certain level of species diversity caught by recreational fishers

Passenger’s satisfaction with public bus transport services in Ghana: A case study of Kumasi–Accra route

Road transport forms part of the daily activities of individuals and it is the principal mode of transport in Ghana. In many parts of the world, individuals tend to use their private vehicles due to lack of satisfaction they derive from the services of public transport. In this paper, passengers satisfaction with public transport services in Ghana has been investigated using binary logistic regression model. Among the sampled passengers, the results indicate that 15%, 63.2%, 20.8% and 1% believed that the overall service quality of public transport is excellent, good, moderate and poor respectively. From the estimated binary logit model, passengers rating for overall service quality tend to increase when they are satisfied with service components such as fare structure (OR=1.897; 95%CI=1.08-3.33), crime rate at bus station (OR=1.829, 95%CI=1.05-3.18) and traffic safety record of the bus (OR=4.407; 95%CI=2.64-7.36). It was established that, passenger's satisfaction with public transport service is highly influenced by bus traffic safety record. Thus, to retain existing and attract new users, policies relating to passengers safety and comfort as well as fare and control of crime rate at the bus station should be targeted and improved upon. They are the service components that users valued most

The effects of measurement uncertainty on spatial characterisation of recreational fishing catch rates

Accurate mapping of catch rates of fish species is important for identifying their abundances and locations, and for monitoring their population changes. However, the use of imprecise fishing survey data may influence mapping and delineation of locations with high catch rates. We evaluated the incorporation of measurement uncertainty in recreational catch rate data for three important recreational fish species with different behavioural and distributional characteristics. The study combined a soft indicator kriging approach that uses a logistic function transformation and p-field simulation to determine the effect of measurement uncertainty on catch rate mapping and fishing area delineation. The results suggest that measurement uncertainty can influence the degree of spatial autocorrelation and the precision of kriging estimation. In addition, measurement uncertainty was found to influence the probability of classifying a location as either being a high or low catch rate zone. In general, the incorporation of the measurement uncertainty improves the ability to draw valid conclusions about the estimation results, which may influence any decision regarding the delineation of areas of abundance for spatial management. The use of a soft indicator kriging approach is a promising tool for catch rate mapping, in particular for survey data with class-specific patterns of spatial continuity