Abstract:
The paper discusses the use of a school library by new entrants to the University of
Peradeniya in 2015. Arts (BA), Management (BBA) and Law (LLB) streams were
taken for consideration. Survey research method was applied using a structured
questionnaire. Objectives are to identify their school library usage, the use of social
media and the use of other digital messaging systems by province. Two day library
registration of new entrants' (877) were analysed by using SPSS version 13.
Regarding the subject teachers' influence on the use of the library, majority of
students were asked by the teacher to use the library in BA, BBA, and LLB. In the use
of social media, most of them were not using face book to get information. Twitter
indicated a very low usage in the overall three streams. Regarding Skype, again a
very low usage has been indicated. Average expressed their desire to communicate
with these media with the library. Below fifty percents of new entrants had email
accounts. Average number of students (34.4%) had mobile phone with Internet
connection and this is a little higher (27.1%) than the use of social media. More than
fifty percent like to get library messages to their mobile phones. According to the
overall results, students from the all streams not considerably used the library in all
provinces and although, they like to have the library messages to their mobile
phones, they are not familiar with the social media and with other communication
technology. Therefore, training programmes and other library awareness methods
relating to the use of all kind of resources and communication methods are
necessary for them to increase the library usage in all provinces.
