Abstract:
The academic libraries play a fundamental role in supporting teaching, learning,
and research activities at the University and act as a gateway to knowledge by
organizing knowledge products such as books, periodicals, e-resources and other
library materials in academic research and creative fields. With the advancement
of web technology, most universities have a website for their library, which is
instrumental in disseminating and promoting library and library services information
to all users. Further, academic library websites provide access to online catalogues,
electronic databases, e-resources, past papers, and digital collections to support the
research and educational needs of the faculty and student. The study analyzes the
role of academic libraries’ stimulative and interactive websites in providing effective
services for patrons. This study targets to find out the techniques and practices to
proactively maintain a library website for the betterment of knowledge dissemination
in academic libraries. Quantitative data collection tools were used to collect data
from the academic library patrons. Structured questionnaires were distributed via
Google Form, and the data collected from 140 respondents were analyzed using
descriptive statistical techniques. All the respondents are members of the academic
library at the University level in Sri Lanka. The study found that the patrons with
59.3% encounter problems identifying the books’ physical location at the library.
Further, the study found that the patrons’ visits and circulation of books depend
on the ease of accessibility to the physical location of the books. 77.9% of patrons
expect quick links to access the book by displaying the book’s cover page or content
page. Many academic libraries do not have a tool to organize reader communication
to help or respond to library users more quickly and effectively. 87.1% of the
respondents have pointed out that the website of the academic library in which they
are the members does not have any mechanism for quick and effective responses to
the patrons’ queries. Therefore, this study recommends that library websites must
facilitate adequate information through stimulative and responsive design.
