Voice of Users about Mahidol Book Delivery Services Development

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the information of the library users in using Mahidol Library Book Delivery Service of the Central Library, Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. The results of this study are used to suggest the improvement and development of Book Delivery Service provided by Central Library, Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center.

The research found that Master/Doctoral student requests were the highest quantity (45.61%). Regarding the frequency of use (everyday, almost everyday, once a week, once a month and seldom), “seldom use” was the highest cited frequency (41.23%). As for the purposes of use, the most cited one was to do research/thesis (48.53%). In term of users’ level of satisfaction, different areas of services were rated as follows: Circulation process was rated as high satisfaction (  = 4.34). Support from library staff was rated as the highest satisfaction (  = 4.67), and the overall services were rated as the highest satisfaction (  = 4.61). Library users gave the following suggestions to improve the quality of Mahidol Library Book Delivery Service: Users should be able to use one Form for several books (not one form for one book) and it should be made clear from the library’s website. Users should be able to use such services online, and the delivery period should take less than 3 working days.

The findings shall be applied for the improvement of the services. The Library, with cooperation from the Information and Technology Division, will make this online service easier to use. For example, users can borrow books from online circulation system and can borrow more than one book at a time. More cooperation among libraries of different faculties/institutes should be promoted so that their resources can be shared, which will make the services more effective and can meet the needs of users.