Revista
de la
Universidad
del Zulia
Fundada en 1947
por el Dr. Jesús Enrique Lossada
NÚMERO ESPECIAL
DEPÓSITO LEGAL ZU2020000153
Esta publicación científica en formato digital
es continuidad de la revista impresa
ISSN 0041-8811
E-ISSN 2665-0428
Ciencias
de la
Educación
Año 12 N° 35
Noviembre - 2021
Tercera Época
Maracaibo-Venezuela
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Evaluation of quality and efficiency of information resources of
educational libraries
Olena V. Veremchuk*
Tetiana S. Pavlenko**
Yaroslava M. Nikolaienko***
Oksana Ye. Matviichuk****
Olena V. Kozhedub*****
ABSTRACT
The objective of the work was to analyze the quality of the information resources of educational
libraries. Methods: A user survey of ten educational libraries was conducted to achieve this objective.
Results: It was found that representatives of different target groups visit libraries for different
purposes. Students and pupils use the library mainly to carry necessary textbooks and books,
communicate, attend events. Academics, lecturers / professors, use it not only to obtain the book,
but also to check references and read new publications in the library, use electronic resources, as
well as to work on research. Sometimes pupils and students often need the help of library staff,
indicating a lack of information literacy. Scholars, lecturers / teachers, are often able to fend for
themselves. Electronic resources are the most effective, according to respondents, but visitors to
educational libraries also continue to use traditional resources. Conclusions: Research shows that to
increase the efficiency and quality of information resources of educational libraries, employees
should focus their efforts on improving the information literacy of library users, as well as
demonstrating the values of the library, inform about library services and maintain using information
and communication technologies.
KEYWORDS: education; libraries; information; library user.
*Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate professor of Department of Philological Disciplines and
Social Communications, Faculty of Humanities, Mukachevo State University, Mukachevo, Ukraine.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2514-8733. E-mail: overemchukpop87@gmail.com
**Research Officer of Department of scientific and educational information resources V.O.
Sukhomlynsky State Scientific and Pedagogical Library of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3244-7897. E-mail: tetanapavl1706@gmail.com
***Research Officer of Department of scientific and educational information resources V.O.
Sukhomlynsky State Scientific and Pedagogical Library of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5959-8161. E-mail: yaroslava.nik.dnpb@gmail.com
****Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of Department of scientific and educational
information resources V.O. Sukhomlynskyi State Scientific and Pedagogical Library of Ukraine, Kyiv,
Ukraine. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8555-3645. E-mail: osvitateka23@ukr.net
*****Candidate of sociological Sciences, Associate Professor of Department of Military Psychology and
Pedagogy, Military Institute of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7332-1727. E-mail: kozedubb2001@ukr.net
Recibido: 22/07/2021 Aceptado: 15/09/2021
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Evaluación de la calidad y eficiencia de los recursos de información
de las bibliotecas educativas
RESUMEN
El objetivo del trabajo fue analizar la calidad de los recursos de información de las bibliotecas
educativas. Métodos: Se realizó una encuesta a usuarios de diez bibliotecas educativas para
lograr este objetivo. Resultados: Se encontró que representantes de diferentes grupos
objetivo visitan las bibliotecas con diferentes propósitos. Los estudiantes y los alumnos
utilizan la biblioteca principalmente para llevar los libros de texto y los libros necesarios,
comunicarse, asistir a eventos. Académicos, conferencistas / profesores, lo usan no solo para
obtener el libro, sino también para revisar referencias y leer nuevas publicaciones en la
biblioteca, usar recursos electrónicos, así como para trabajar en investigación. A veces, los
alumnos y los estudiantes a menudo necesitan la ayuda del personal de la biblioteca, lo que
indica una falta de alfabetización en información. Los eruditos, los conferencistas/ profesores,
suelen ser capaces de arreglárselas por sí mismos. Según los encuestados, los recursos
electrónicos son los más eficaces, pero los visitantes de las bibliotecas educativas también
siguen utilizando los recursos tradicionales. Conclusiones: La investigación muestra que para
aumentar la eficiencia y la calidad de los recursos de información de las bibliotecas
educativas, los empleados deben centrar sus esfuerzos en mejorar la alfabetización
informacional de los usuarios de la biblioteca, así como demostrar los valores de la biblioteca,
informar sobre los servicios bibliotecarios y mantener utilizando tecnologías de la
información y la comunicación.
PALABRAS CLAVE: bibliotecas educativas; recursos de información; eficiencia; usuario de
la biblioteca.
Introduction
Lifelong learning is one of the principles of sustainable development. This encourages
an increase in demand for information resources and leads to an increase in their number
exponentially. A precondition for effective orientation in the information field is users’
information literacy.
Libraries are engaged in creation, organisation, storage, withdrawal of information
resources, and also reference services. Ensuring sustainable development of document and
information resources of libraries and creating a system of universal access to them is one of
the priorities of qualitative changes in libraries to ensure sustainable development of the
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country. Library staff can be equated with multidisciplinary scholars, because they are the
first to get acquainted with new information resources, and effectiveness of information
management and creating a quality information service depends on their orientation in
modern science. An important task to improve the efficiency of educational libraries is not
only to increase the information contained in their holding to meet the needs of users —
scholars, lecturers/professors, teachers, students, pupils, but also to inform users about
library resources, primary and secondary documents, providing access to library collections.
Services provided by libraries include delivery of documents, photocopying, translation of
documents, consultations, replenishment of databases, scientific reference resources and
providing remote access to resources of other libraries, information centres and networks,
etc.
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and quality of information
resources of educational libraries through surveying their users. Achieving this aim provided
for the fulfilment of following objectives:
1) to develop a questionnaire to assess the effectiveness of information resources;
2) to conduct a survey of users of educational libraries.
1. Literature review
A number of studies deal with the complex problems associated with the
transformation of library services and resources under the influence of the spread of
electronic technologies. Researchers note that the tools for assessing the quality of library
information services are gradually expanding, primarily due to the introduction of
information technology into practice (Enakrire & Ocholla, 2017; Kaur, 2018). They affect the
sources of information, library services, human resources involved in the library system, and
the speed of meeting the users’ information needs (Pareek & Gangrade, 2016). Information
technologies also save time and human resources for library work: creating and maintaining
catalogues, virtual help, electronic search, database creation, document delivery, etc.
(Hussaini et al., 2017; Asemi et al., 2020; Yahaya, 2019). Besides, information technology
provided the opportunity to remotely access the necessary information and the ability to
communicate with libraries regardless of borders (Pareek & Gangrade, 2016; Omeluzor et al.,
2017). Electronic information resources have appeared, and virtual reading has been
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developing thanks to information technologies in general and electronic libraries in
particular (Borisova et al., 2020). Electronic educational libraries are in demand among
students, teachers, lecturers/professors, researchers (Anyim, 2018). At the same time, each
user pursues his goal: preparation for classes, homework, writing a scientific paper, etc.
(Sivakumaren, 2017). Although there are still problems with digitisation of information
(Balutagi et al., 2018; Ukangwa et al., 2020), it is believed that electronic information
resources have won over the printed ones (Das & Mahapatra, 2018).
Despite the fact that most information resources are electronic, there is still a problem
of their preservation (viruses, natural disasters, etc.), which requires library staff to have
appropriate qualifications, proper information, communication and technological support
(Adetunla & Agbetuyi, 2018).
There is also a need for interlibrary exchange of information, as some libraries keep
unique single copies of information sources, which should be available to anyone wishing to
read them (Veeramallu et al., 2021).
Social networks make a significant contribution to the communication of libraries and
their users. They provide for an effective exchange of information on library working hours,
new arrivals to the library holding, ongoing events, etc. In turn, library page visits and user
comments can provide feedback (Ahmed et al., 2020; Fasae, 2020).
In general, information resources include published and unpublished primary (created
by the author) and secondary (the result of analytical and synthetic processing of one or more
primary documents to adapt information to the consumer’s information needs) documents
on paper and electronic media (books, serial publications, dissertations etc.), factographic,
full-text and bibliographic databases (DB). These are catalogues, card indexes, collections of
databases, in particular on educational subjects. Textbooks, journals, monographs,
newspapers, scientific and technical reports, encyclopaedias, manuscripts, patents,
standards (Popoola, 2017; Ponomarenko, 2015), research data (Tenopir et al., 2017) are also
considered information resources.
A number of studies have already been conducted to study the effectiveness and the
quality of information resources of educational libraries. In particular, a survey was
conducted (Veeramallu et al., 2021) to assess the effectiveness of information resources using
the following data: web links, arrivals, availability of catalogues, library services, availability
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of Internet access. Questionnaires and interviews surveyed user satisfaction with library
services (Anyim, 2018; Tetteh & Nyantakyi-Baah, 2019). According to the users of
educational libraries, the effectiveness and the quality of information resources include
comprehensiveness, accessibility, prompt satisfaction of information needs, ease of use,
availability of information in several formats and media (Pareek & Gangrade, 2016).
Surveys of educational library managers conducted in the United States, Canada, and
22 European countries showed that their staff can provide qualified informational advice on
finding open-access scientific and educational resources (Cox et al., 2017). However, the
issue of improving the methodology for assessing the effectiveness and the quality of
information resources of educational libraries remains urgent.
It should be noted that the network of educational libraries of Ukraine is the largest
and unites 18,066 libraries of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the
National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, including about 15,000 libraries of
secondary schools. The methodical centre is Sukhomlynskyi State Scientific and Pedagogical
Library of Ukraine. The total library holding is 333.2 million documents. The total number of
users is 7.7 million, the number of visits is almost 202 million, 49 million documents are lent
out to users annually. Number of employees is more than 20 thousand people.
2. Materials and methods
The effectiveness and the quality of information resources of educational libraries was
assessed as follows: 1) 10 libraries of Ukraine belonging to the network of educational
libraries were selected for research; 2) a questionnaire was developed to assess the
effectiveness and the quality of information resources of educational libraries; 3) a survey of
library users was conducted; 4) the results of the survey were processed, the factors having
the greatest impact on the effectiveness of information resources were determined, and the
effectiveness of information resources available in the studied libraries were identified
according to users.
The sample involved 10 libraries, in particular, Sukhomlynskyi State Scientific and
Pedagogical Library of Ukraine, the Scientific Library of the University of Education
Management, libraries of secondary educational institutions No. 132, 156, 277 of Kyiv, the
Library of Cherkasy Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education of Teachers, the Library of
Nizhyn Mykola Gogol State University, the Library of the State Educational Institution
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“Bohuslav Centre for Vocational Education”, the Library of the State Vocational School
“Koziatyn Interregional Higher Vocational School of Railway Transport”, the Library of
Chernihiv Secondary School No. 35. The sample also involved 804 users of the above libraries,
including 125 scholars, 133 lecturers/professors, 82 students, 144 teachers, 270 pupils and 50
parents.
For a more complete acquaintance with the information resources of educational
libraries, we also used the data collected and published by specialists of Sukhomlynskyi State
Scientific and Pedagogical Library of Ukraine (National Academy of Educational Sciences of
Ukraine, 2019).
Quantitative methodology was used in the work. A questionnaire containing 30
questions, answers to which were "Yes" or "No", was developed to assess the effectiveness
and the quality of information resources of educational libraries. This questionnaire can be
used to determine the target group of respondents, the purpose of visiting the library, to
assess whether users have achieved the goal and whether they sought help. The opinions of
users of educational libraries studied in this paper on the effectiveness of library and
information resources, in particular, electronic (electronic journals, electronic books,
electronic catalogues) and traditional, were also collected through the survey.
Besides, a survey of parents of students of vocational educational and general
secondary educational institutions was conducted, which allowed studying the opinion of
parents about the effectiveness and the quality of information resources contained in the
libraries of educational institutions where their children study.
Participation in the survey was voluntary and safe. Anonymity and confidentiality
were observed.
Upon analysing the results of the survey, the conclusions were drawn about the
information literacy of library users and the degree of effectiveness of information resources
of educational libraries, as well as possible areas for improving the process of interaction
between users and library staff, its material, technological and intellectual resources focused
on meeting the information needs of users by providing access to information products and
resources, including remotely, were outlined.
3. Results
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According to the Law of Ukraine “On the National Informatisation Programme”, the
information resource is “a set of documents in information systems (libraries, archives, data
banks, etc.)” (Verchovna Rada of Ukraine, 2020). Information resources include scientific
and technical literature, documentation, books, periodicals, patent documents, catalogues,
design documents, reporting scientific and technical documentation, manuscripts,
translations on paper or other media. These also include information systems, information
technology, personnel who process information (Maslianko & Lissov, 2007). Different
scholars defined the concept of effectiveness differently. In this paper we take the following
definition: “Effectiveness is the ability to bring effect, the efficiency of the process, project,
etc., which are defined as the ratio of effect, result to the costs that provided this result”
(Yashchenko & Romaniuk, 2008, p. 238).
The quality of information resources will be understood a set of characteristics and
properties that meet the information requirements and needs of users.
The library users survey was conducted in order to assess the effectiveness and the
quality of information resources of Ukrainian educational libraries (see Table 1).
Table 1. Library resources
Library
Library of
Cherkasy
Regional
Institute of
Postgraduate
Education of
Teachers
Scientific
Library of the
University of
Education
Management
Library of
Nizhyn
Mykola
Gogol State
University
Resource
Holding (approx.)
41,894
106,352
976,448
Holding use (approx.)
31,162
117,153
103,009
Users, according to the
Unified User Register
2,031
5,113
2,946
Number of visits,
including virtual
28,753
(20,301)
18,003 (5,527)
136,716
(34,591)
Own databases
---
______
44,038
Entries in the
electronic catalogue
18,536
______
278,677
Internet
representation
Section at the
portal
Web-page
Web-site
Availability of the
electronic catalogue at
the website
----
_____
Yes
Availability of the
electronic library at
the website
-----
_____
Yes
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As Table 1 shows, all reviewed libraries have a large holding, they are represented on
the Internet or have a separate web-site or a page on the web-site of the institution to which
they are subordinated. All of them are in demand among visitors, which depends on the
library holding and the availability of an electronic catalogue, electronic library and their own
databases, they can meet the information needs of their users. A total of 804 users of the above
libraries were surveyed. Table 2 shows the distribution of respondents by libraries and target
groups.
Table 2. Sample description
Target groups
Scholars
Lecturers/
professors
Students
Teachers
Pupils
Parents
Total
Libraries
Sukhomlynskyi State Scientific and
Pedagogical Library of Ukraine
21
46
17
23
0
0
107
Library of Cherkasy Regional Institute of
Postgraduate Education of Teachers
14
28
0
65
0
0
107
Scientific Library of the University of
Education Management
67
12
0
0
0
0
79
Library of NizhynMykola Gogol State
University
17
31
65
18
0
0
131
Library of the State Educational
Institution “Bohuslav Centre for
Vocational Education”
3
8
0
0
39
10
60
Library of the State Vocational School
“Koziatyn Interregional Higher Vocational
School of Railway Transport”
3
8
0
0
40
8
59
Library of Kyiv Secondary School No. 132
0
0
0
10
50
8
68
Library of Kyiv Secondary School No. 156
0
0
0
10
50
8
68
Library of Kyiv Secondary School No. 277
0
0
0
9
50
8
67
Library of Chernihiv Secondary School
No. 35
0
0
0
9
41
8
58
Total
125
133
82
144
270
50
804
The purpose for which the users visit educational libraries was determined through a
survey. The results are presented in Table 3.
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Table 3. The purpose of visiting the library and assessment of its achievement
Target groups
Scholars
Lecturers
/professor
s
Students
Teachers
Pupils
Purpose of
visiting the library
Take the book
Yes
66
101
67
140
270
No
59
32
15
4
0
Read reference literature
Yes
91
37
8
113
16
No
34
96
74
31
254
Prepare for class
Yes
0
54
74
77
29
No
125
79
8
67
241
Prepare for the report
Yes
17
8
19
64
85
No
108
125
63
80
185
Use e-resources
Yes
106
81
75
78
0
No
19
52
7
66
270
Review printed publications
Yes
68
45
11
47
0
No
57
88
71
97
270
Use online tools
Yes
16
42
76
34
0
No
109
91
6
110
270
Read the news of periodicals
Yes
103
67
2
67
0
No
22
66
80
77
270
Read new arrivals
Yes
36
38
1
53
0
No
89
87
81
91
270
Assessment of achievement of the
purpose
The purpose was achieved
Yes
122
129
61
140
167
No
3
4
21
4
103
Too much time is spent on achieving the
purpose
Yes
9
26
33
27
43
No
116
107
49
117
227
They orientated themselves in the
information resources of the library
Yes
111
112
13
113
32
No
14
21
69
31
238
They had to ask colleagues for help
Yes
2
5
24
5
0
No
123
128
58
139
270
They had to seek help from librarians
Yes
7
16
38
18
238
No
118
117
44
126
32
There is too much information received
Yes
75
38
29
23
12
No
50
95
53
121
258
Enough skills to use information resources
Yes
119
126
22
101
35
No
6
7
60
43
235
As Table 3 shows, different target groups of respondents pursue different purposes
when visiting the educational library. For example, both scholars, lecturers/professors,
teachers and students, pupils come for books. All but pupils also use e-resources available in
the library. Scholars, pupils, are the most interested in reference books, the least — teachers
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and students. Students and teachers most often prepare for classes in educational libraries.
Scholars, lecturers/professors and teachers are most interested in news from periodicals. The
study showed that scholars, lecturers/professors are better oriented in the information space
as a field in which they are experts and related fields of science, and are more independent in
finding the necessary information, work with different sources of information, most of all
respondents use abstract journals and other information publications.
Teachers, students and pupils prefer to receive particular information, necessary facts
and data that can be conveniently obtained from an employee of the educational library.
Scholars, lecturers/professors and teachers are able to achieve the goal of visiting the
library. Students and pupils are less familiar with the tools needed for this. All of them do not
spend much time to meet their information needs. Students often seek help from groupmates
as well as librarians when problems arise. In most cases, pupils seek help from a library
employee. Students and pupils still need to learn how to use library resources to get the
information they need. This indicates a different degree of information literacy of the
representatives of different target groups.
A separate survey was conducted among 50 parents of pupils of vocational schools and
secondary schools, which showed that 87% of parents believe that the information resources
available in the libraries of educational institutions where their children study are sufficient
to prepare for classes. There were 13% of parents who consider the supply of information
resources of libraries to be insufficient for their children’s education and they are forced to
buy books or search for the necessary information on the Internet.
The survey also found out the opinion of users of educational libraries regarding the
effectiveness and the quality of information resources available to them. Its results are
presented in Table 4.
The assessment was conducted on a 6-point scale, where 0 — there is no such resource
in the library, 1 — very inefficient, 2 — inefficient, 3 — not efficient enough, 4 — efficient, 5
— highly efficient. The confidence interval was 0.95, p ≤ 0.05. The survey results once again
confirmed that currently not all libraries have the necessary resources to effectively meet the
information needs of users, or their condition is unsatisfactory. For example, not all
educational libraries have electronic libraries and electronic catalogues, in particular school
libraries and vocational school libraries. This was confirmed by more than 50% of surveyed
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users of educational libraries. The same number of respondents did not find electronic search
in libraries, perhaps that is why many users consider the traditional search in catalogues is
still considered effective. Many libraries are not represented on the Internet, which also
negatively affects the information support of users.
As for the traditional ways to meet the information needs of users of educational
libraries, they are popular and considered effective.
Table 4. Opinion of users about the effectiveness of library and information resources
Score
0
1
2
3
4
5
Resource
Scientific periodicals
online
54 %
0.1 %
0.3 %
12 %
19.1 %
24.5 %
E-books
54 %
0.5 %
1.2%
23.1 %
14.2 %
7 %
Electronic catalogues
51 %
0.2 %
0.3 %
21.8 %
14.7 %
12 %
Electronic search
51 %
1 %
1.7 %
18.5 %
17.1 %
10.7 %
Monographs
48.3 %
0.8 %
2.5 %
10.3 %
26.7 %
11.4 %
Author’s abstracts of
dissertations
61 %
2.1 %
3.4 %
8.9 %
19.3 %
5.3 %
Collections of scientific
works
39 %
1.7 %
2.9 %
12.5 %
26.3 %
17.6 %
Patents / standards
27 %
0.4 %
1.1 %
37.6 %
26 %
7.9 %
Proceedings of conferences
/ seminars
32 %
1 %
1.5 %
53.2 %
10.3 %
2 %
Circulation
25 %
1 %
1.5 %
28.3 %
31 %
13.2 %
Booking of materials
7 %
2 %
2 %
46.7 %
31.5 %
10.8 %
Email
27 %
0.5 %
1.1 %
48 %
17.6 %
5.8 %
Newsletter of new arrivals
2 %
3 %
5 %
68 %
20 %
2 %
Library card catalogue
3 %
0.5 %
12.1 %
20.6 %
47.3 %
16.5 %
Thematic card indexes
34 %
0.8 %
7.4 %
13 %
26 %
9.8 %
Systemic card index of
articles
38.1 %
0.4
5.3
9.6 %
31.9 %
14.7 %
Interlibrary loan
60 %
0.3 %
0.7 %
7 %
21
11 %
Bibliographic manuals
50 %
0.1 %
0.8 %
23 %
15.1 %
11 %
Recommended editions
50 %
0.3 %
1.0 %
29 %
13.1 %
6.9 %
Abstract resources
50 %
0.7 %
0.9%
18 %
17 %
23.4 %
Information and analytical
resources
50 %
0.1 %
0.3%
15 %
29 %
5.6 %
Databases of scientific
information
50 %
0.2 %
0.8%
8 %
26 %
15 %
Printed media
0 %
3 %
18 %
57.3 %
16.7 %
5 %
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4. Discussion
The growing demand for quality socially significant information and the expansion of
consumer opportunities in the prompt receipt of information from the holdings of the
modern library is an urgent challenge today. There are corresponding changes in the
development of library resources under the influence of electronic technologies. Along with
the traditional resources of libraries on paper (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.),
electronic information resources (electronic catalogues, electronic full-text documents,
analytical information, etc.) increase their capacity. Therefore, there is a need to orient in the
information field of librarians themselves and meet the information needs of users. In order
to reduce the time spent on finding the necessary sources of information, scientific and
analytical processing and dissemination of information in the field of education is carried out
through the preparation, creation and dissemination of analytical materials.
The information needs of library users are regularly studied in order to optimise their
work. For this purpose, modern means of communication are introduced, electronic
databases are created and regularly filled in (Seletskyi, 2018). Today, librarians’ professional
role has expanded from simply providing navigation in the information space of users to a
mediator between the available information and the creation of new one (Abolikhina et al.,
2018). Employees of educational libraries, in particular, Sukhomlynskyi State Scientific and
Pedagogical Library of Ukraine, who process and structure significant amounts of primary
information on education, pedagogy and psychology, create analytical thematic,
bibliographic and abstract reviews (Zozulia, 2015), monitor information resources
(Matviichuk, 2020).
In order to increase the efficiency of information resources, it is important to study the
experience of other countries. Foreign libraries mainly have electronic resources and
electronic libraries available from mobile technologies. At the same time, they provide web-
sites with relevant, meaningful content, easy navigation, links to Internet resources for
professional communication, etc. (Mishchanin, 2018). It is also possible to increase the
efficiency of information resources by the following measures: creation of navigation tools on
all library and information resources and network services on the web-sites of educational
libraries, expansion of information resources, for example, presentations, videos of lectures,
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seminars, etc.; creation of online platforms for professional communication on the basis of
libraries.
However, a number of states have problems with providing libraries with the
necessary resources. For example, a survey of 175 users of educational libraries (Corpuz,
2020) shows that library services are useful and important. However, the provision of
libraries is average. The reasons are the lack of new revenues, as well as proper technical
support.
As this study showed, the fund of libraries included in the sample is replenished every
year.
There is also a difference between the services provided by libraries and the services
expected by their users (Khan & Ameen, 2020).
The availability of high-quality electronic catalogues in libraries, which make the
search for the necessary information fast and convenient, also helps to increase the efficiency
of information resources (Okoye, 2019).
As this study showed, only every second library has an electronic catalog. However,
14.7% of surveyed library users consider it an effective resource, and 12% - highly effective.
Besides, to improve the efficiency of information resources, work has recently been
done to create a single information space, which provides for the unification, mutual use of
information resources of collections, libraries and other information and cultural institutions
with further integration into the European and world information space (Kovalenko &
Zorina, 2017).
Information literacy is one of the criteria for the effective use of information resources.
Information literacy is a set of abilities that allow a person to determine what information is
needed, find, assess and use it. The work of librarians should be aimed at teaching users to
use the information contained in libraries (Kanyengo & Kamau, 2020; Wang, 2019). Studies
(Kannan, 2020; Kanyengo & Kamau, 2020) showed that the following obstacles may arise
on the way to obtaining information: time constraints due to user-inconvenient library work
schedule, insufficient number of library staff, lack of sufficient jobs for users and relevant
modern equipment, insufficient qualification of library staff, lack of cooperation of libraries
with other departments of the structure, lack of Internet access, etc.
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The survey (Lewis & Mallaiah, 2014; Veeramallu et al., 2021) found that most pupils
and students need the help of library staff in finding the necessary information resources, as
well as special information literacy training that will help use libraries more effectively.
According to this study, only 28% of surveyed library users can cope with finding the
necessary library resources on their own. The remaining 72% need the help of library staff.
Under such conditions, librarians act as providers of information. They promote their
resources through blog web-sites, teach users to work with electronic libraries, repositories.
This requires employees of educational libraries to be competent to provide quality
information services, to understand information resources themselves, to assess them.
In this paper, only 10 libraries limited themselves to assessing the effectiveness of the
quality of information resources, and did not cover all categories included in the network of
educational libraries.
In future research, it is important to include periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of
the quality of information resources in order to study the information needs of users, improve
the services of educational libraries and create appropriate conditions for them to obtain the
necessary information. It is important to recurrently evaluate the effectiveness and quality of
information resources in order to study the information needs of users, improve the services
of educational libraries and create appropriate conditions for them to obtain the necessary
information.
Conclusion
The issue of rapid orientation in the information space is urgent in the era of rapid
growth in the information volumes. Libraries, in particular educational ones, facilitate this
task. However, the necessary conditions for their effective use are the information literacy of
users and high-quality information resources in libraries. The effectiveness and the quality of
information resources were assessed through a survey in this work. The results of the survey
showed that users of educational libraries consider highly effective such information
resources that do not require much time to obtain, including electronic, although
respondents assess printed information resources as effective. The availability of electronic
catalogues, electronic search and well-established communication between the libraries of
the network, in particular, the availability of interlibrary loan, as well as abstract and
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information-analytical resources play an important role in meeting the information needs of
users of educational libraries.
The results of this study can be useful to specialists in the field of information
activities of educational libraries, as well as librarians and bibliographers who study
information resources, in particular, to assess their effectiveness and quality.
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