Assessment of Infrastructure and Services in Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University: Issues and Scope for Improvement

Abstract

Libraries of today are different from those of the past. There are many differences between the libraries which we had in the ancient, medieval periods and the libraries of modern time. It is difficult to survive of the libraries in case they are not given emphasis on building library collection as well as improving infrastructural facilities. Maulana Azad Library is a central library of Aligarh Muslim University which is famous all over the world primarily due to its collection. In the present paper, an assessment has been made about infrastructural facilities available in Maulana Azad Library. This study also highlights the different services provided by the library. Based on survey, the study reports how users rate different facilities and services. It also covers suggestions made by users with respect to improvement in the services/facilities. Data for this study has been collected using well-structured questionnaire. A total number of 342 questionnaires distributed randomly among the users for this purpose. The findings indicate that many library users are satisfied with the library services and infrastructural facilities provided by library, nonetheless still there are some services and facilities needs an improvement. It was found that especially postgraduate and undergraduate students are lack of aware about some of the services, therefore, it is necessary to organize user awareness programmes.