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A range of factors has provided facilities for the maximum use of technology in libraries. This application has marked a new era for library services. A postal survey confirms its lesser use in university libraries of Saudi Arabia (less than the UK and Malaysia for example) for housekeeping and bibliographic searching. A literature review points out a number of reasons for this lower use, for example, non‐existence of a national information policy and the lack of trained staff. Use can be increased by taking initiatives by professional organisations and Government agencies. Among these, planning of technology, implementing information policy, developing broader awareness for the use of technology in libraries, establishing staff training and development and user education programmes are particularly important.

From the moment the ASU Libraries migrated from dumb terminals to PC workstations for access to electronic resources, there was great concern that these workstations would be used “inappropriately”. Whether students should be allowed to check their e‐mail from the workstations was debated, as was the need to restrict access to the Internet. The Information Technology division at the University was concerned with how the Library would provide accountability for anything that happened at a public workstation. After much discussion, it was decided that the Library PC workstations would provide unrestricted access to the Internet. Telnet access was limited to library‐related resources requiring Telnet, in an effort to keep students from doing computing assignments and personal e‐mail on these workstations. The systems department developed an approach to data collection that included both an observational system and an electronic data collection system, using sampling techniques, to collect data on the use of the PC workstations at the main library (Hayden) at Arizona State University. This presentation will describe the data collection techniques, the results of data analysis, and how the results of data analysis are being used to better manage the PC workstations in the Library.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the changes in the information world that libraries are confronted with, and how new services are measured to ensure their usefulness.

The paper examines the standardised measures for the changing information environment.

Standardizing definitions and methods for the assessment of input, output and impact of library services will assist libraries in demonstrating value for money in the ongoing changes.

The paper examines the extent of international consensus on data to be collected and indicators to be used.

Intellectual access to recorded information has been a major preoccupation of librarians and various methods have been used to evaluate library programmes. Statistical methods have been used recently in library evaluation and management. Managing the physical availability of books can contribute to greater effectiveness in dealing with such matters as library space, book acquisition, cost effectiveness in budgeting, staffing assignments and other aspects of library service that would make the book readily available to the user. This study uses quantitative analysis to determine in‐library book use at the University of Calabar. It was found that many people use the library for various reasons, especially during examination periods, other than for reading library books. These range from reading recommended texts to leisure reading. More use is made of the library materials for research purposes where there are current journals.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the library use pattern of humanities faculty members at University of the Punjab, Lahore.

A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to get response from the targeted population which consisted of 90 teaching and research staff of humanities departments. The response rate was 69 percent.

The study reveals that most of the respondents feel themselves good in library use skills, which is owing to their high frequency of library use, not to any formal training. They prefer to use the library themselves, rather than seeking help from the library staff. Respondents found the central library richer in collection than their departmental libraries. Most of respondents were visiting the library for using the reference material or for searching some specific information and they seldom seek help from the library staff. Resources and services/facilities available in the central library were professed to be better than their departmental libraries. Respondents fulfilled their information needs not only from central and departmental libraries of the university but from other libraries in the city as well. They were facing the problem of non‐availability of required material due to their heavy dependency on the library resources. Dissatisfaction was also shown with the library staff and technical support. More journals and reference material in humanities were suggested by the respondents, along with better facilities and services.

The knowledge about the information needs and library use pattern of users helps the library and information science professionals to develop the library collections, improve the services and upgrade the facilities.

This paper provides a case study of how specific kinds of scholars use library services and should be of interest to librarians providing information services for humanists.

Resource funded research into The Economic Value of Public Libraries was carried out in the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University during 1999‐2000. Examines some of the findings focusing on book borrowing and information seeking by a number of socio‐economic characteristics. In the light of these characteristics, considers how far public libraries contribute to social inclusion. Identifies seven ages of library use and discusses the library’s value to a person at each of these stages. Also considers the use of central and branch libraries, and therefore the value of each to various groups. Shows that, while book borrowing is spread fairly evenly across the population, information seeking is much less so, with those in most need of information least likely to seek it from a public library. Draws two conclusions. The first is that both value and social inclusion will be greater if libraries and library services are widespread. The second is that the record of UK public libraries in serving users across a wide socio‐economic spectrum is already good.

In order to better understand how collections are used, this study aims to present a large‐scale analysis of usage patterns for non‐core monographs in the collections of fourteen general academic libraries of varying sizes.

Using Spectra Dimension, a collection analysis tool, this study compares use data from multiple academic libraries.

It appears that general academic libraries are overinvesting in legal materials and perhaps underinvesting in medical materials.

This study suggests that analysis of use data from multiple libraries may help individual libraries better understand their own collecting needs. Local issues may, however, override the broad patterns identified here.

In lean budgetary times, understanding collection use is key to making informed decisions about resource allocation for collection development. Libraries may be able to use these data to better manage their own materials budgets and collecting practices.

Though there have been a number of large‐scale analyses of collections, most have relied on sampling or have compared small portions of collections, and few have compared use across libraries. This study analyzes collection use across many institutions at a level of detail not possible before the introduction of multi‐library collection analysis tools.

Librarians have been involved in collecting and disseminating statistics for many years. Utilising statistics to describe and assess the operation of library activities as a part of library tradition has received growing attention from researchers, policymakers, library managers, and professionals. However, few studies have investigated how statistics are used in libraries. This report compares directors’ uses of statistics provided by national agencies in the USA and China to highlight the differences and similarities between the ways in which the two groups of directors make use of statistics, and the statistical information that directors find particularly useful. The results are intended to provide library administrators with an insight of how library statistics are used in the managerial process, and may also help the national statistical providers to obtain an understanding of the characteristics and pattern of use of their products.

This paper aims to assess the usage patterns of a university library website to find out user’s behaviour of monthly use, its top most used resources and services and search phrases used to reach the library website.

Transactional log analysis (TLA) – an unobtrusive research method – was used to identify and analyse data of website-using patterns. The log data of website use from January 2011 to March 2011 were analysed for this study.

The findings of this study revealed that the university library website was heavily used on campus by users; however, it was used by a significant number of clients residing off-campus. Free scholarly journals, resources downloaded, e-journals, e-books and donated personal collections were among the top most used resources and services. However, free scholarly journals were used more than subscribed e-journals accessible on-campus only.

This study first used the TLA method to trace user behaviour of website use in a local scenario. Assessing the usage of e-resources is imperative to determine the effectiveness of the library website in providing these services to its on-campus and distant users. The findings of this study are valuable for librarians and webmasters of the library website to redesign and reorient their services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how robots are being used in libraries and information centers to transform their services and what are the future possibilities and trends in the application of robots in libraries.

Through a review of the literature, this paper analyzes various library websites and consults literature relating to the use of telepresence robots in libraries; the current application of robots in libraries has been enumerated along with case studies of libraries currently adopting telepresence robots.

With the practical examples of libraries using different types of robots, this study summarizes diverse activities of artificial intelligence-mediated robots. The uses of telepresence technology in libraries help to enhance library services, reach new users and provide a more inclusive and accessible library experience. Telepresence robots enhance the quality and accessibility of library services, expand library outreach and provide new opportunities for virtual engagement and programming. The application of telepresence robots in libraries can offer many benefits, but there are also several challenges that libraries must address to ensure successful implementation.

This study will motivate libraries and library professionals to take advantage of adopting telepresence robots in library and information center services and further accelerate library operations in the right direction.

This paper highlights how the introduction of telepresence robots in libraries improves services and productivity and creates a more engaging environment for the user group. The benefits and challenges of using robots in the library and the future trend in the application of telepresence robots in libraries are also discussed.