Students in Further Education and in Higher Education
were surveyed on the extent and frequency of their use
of institutional library resource centres and public
libraries and on their attitudes to them. Among some
significant differences identified were: Females report
greater barriers to accessing information than males;
those from "blue collar" backgrounds rely more heavily
than others on institutional provision materials; those
aged under 21 demand increased electronic access and
those over 21 more provision of paper-based materials;
non-white ethnic groups report more misgivings. There
is a mismatch between students' perception of their own
information retrieval skills and their reported difficulties.
Support from staff is seen as high in quality but
insufficient in availability.
Librarians are now more relevant as facilitators than custodians and, in order to fulfil this role successfully, require a high degree of sensitivity to the potential effects of such variables as gender, age and social background on their clients’ interactions with information sources, whether paper‐ or electronic‐based. Government initiatives to widen participation in education mean that students from hitherto non‐traditional backgrounds are more likely to be using libraries than previously. That the much discussed “digital divide” is indeed a reality, is confirmed by the author’s own recent research, “Barriers to libraries as agents of lifelong learning”, conducted at a UK university and two further education colleges. Social class and home access to information technology are shown as dividers impacting on the extent of use of all services offered by the learning resource centre. In the education of future librarians, the need for greater sensitivity to client group characteristics and an enhancement of good interpersonal skills is indicated.
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