Library usage pattern of school teachers in Sri Lanka: problems and issues

The aim of the study was to explore Sri Lankan school teachers‟ information seeking behavior, intention and occasions of accessing libraries, and to measure library skills and the challenges and barriers that they faced during library use. It further examined whether there were any association between the extent of library awareness skills of teachers and four variables such as gender, age, work experience and school locations. A simple random sampling technique was applied to draw the sample for the study and 400 school teachers who had followed postgraduate courses in education were selected as sample from total population (106,756). A questionnaire survey method was used to collect data. Data analysis was done by means of simple and inferential statistics by using SPSS Statistical Package. The results emerged from the present study showed that the studied sample did not regularly access the libraries and they were uncertain about their abilities for effective library use. It was further found that the respondents were rather unsatisfied about the weak library collections of school libraries and improper library services and library arrangements. Unavailability up to date electronic materials and proper guidance also made barriers for school teachers‟ library use. The analysis further found that there was no association between library awareness skills of the teachers and the four given variables (gender, age, work experience and school location).