Reading Habits of Users of Public Libraries

This research study was commissioned by the Pustaka Negeri Sarawak (Pustaka) in 2012 to investigate library users’ reading habits and leisure time activities in the state of Sarawak. Pustaka wanted to enhance reading effort and inculcate reading habits among the users. It was in line with the policy of the government that had made a significant move to promote literacy and encourage life-long learning. For instance, a total number of membership for all these libraries in 2012 was 10.01 million (35.8%) out of a total population of 28.5 million (NLM, 2013). Based on this report, the increased number of libraries and their membership in Malaysia were in line with the aim of Vision 2020: to achieve the status of a developed nation in 2020. The ‘positive’ trends reflect attempts by the government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals in promoting Bangsa Membaca, Bangsa Berjaya (A Reading Society: A Successful Society).

Objectives of the Study

The main aim of the project was to examine the reading habits among library users in Sarawak. The detailed objectives of the proposed improvement project were:

a) To investigate the reading habits and leisure time activities of the library users
b) To determine the extent of the reading habits based on diverse influences
c) To explore the extent of the reading habits of library users (students, working adults and citizens)
d) To design and develop a questionnaire to understand the present state of the users’ reading habits and issues
e) To analyse and write the results
f) To present a comprehensive report on reading habits

Target Participants

The scope of work covered the following target participants of twenty one libraries in Sarawak:

Divisions		Public Libraries
Kuching		a) DBKU City Library b) Bandar Baru Samariang Village Library c) Taman Palma Indah Village Library
Sarikei		a) Sarikei Public Library b) Jakar Village library c) Selalang Village Library
Sibu		a) Sibu Public Library b)Bahagia Jaya Village Library c) Bawang Assan Village Library
Bintulu		a) BDA Public Library, Bintulu (HQ) b) BDA Public Library, Sebauh Branch c) BDA Public Library, Jepak Branch
Miri		a) Miri Public Library b) Beluru Public Library c) Batu Niah Public Library
Limbang		a) Limbang Public Library b) Kpg. Gedong Village Library c) Kpg. Pahlawan Village Library

The research project employed multifaceted data collection approach, using data from fieldwork comprising:

a) visits to benchmarked libraries
b) literature review
c) observations
d) three kinds of interview schedules (head librarians, library assistants and the library users)
e) The research project followed whole and holistic methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools
f) Finally, SPSS software was used to analyse the plethora of useful data.

Findings

The Users
The brief review of the relevant literature informed that reading habits were affected by many diverse variables that needed to be considered before improving their reading habits. The foremost variables that affect the users were ‘self’ of a user, his passion for reading, language (mother tongue) and culture and reading as hobby. The second middle tier depicts influence of patron’s immediate environment comprising reading objectives, teachers, parents, family and friends, school and local library. Finally, the outer tier reflects the variables impacting the patron continuously were Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other developments in the environment.

A total of 843 library users were interviewed (face to face). It is very encouraging to know that an outstanding majority of the library users enjoy visiting the respective libraries, have immense passion to read and are self motivated to read. They were primary and secondary students (11-19 years old) with overwhelming majority of females. Moreover, ethnicity comprises Malay, Iban, Chinese, Melanau, orang Ulu, Bidayuh and others respectively. Generally, they were teenagers and possess healthy reading habits such as buying books on their own. This was a significant baseline to enhance their reading culture. The findings also indicated the main sources of information in libraries (Table 3). A good number (5.9%) of the users utilizes reference section, 5.8% preferred fiction books, and 3.9% sought information from librarians. Moreover, 11-19 year olds preferred reference section (38.5%), 16.6% magazine, 16.3% fiction, and 15% the Internet. Finally, the users did not get information using the e-books.

Urban and Rural Reading Habits
As mentioned before, this research covered 21 libraries in 7 divisions of Sarawak. The libraries covered were 7 town libraries and 14 village libraries. The names of these libraries had been mentioned under the methodology section of this report. It was indicated here that the number of respondents interviewed for the town libraries is 279 library users while 564 library users were interviewed in the village libraries. This also showed library provision had wider extent up to rural areas and outcome of provision is worth praising. This comparative study also reflects a higher proportion of respondents from the village libraries. Nevertheless, the study stresses on the significant reading patterns among rural and urban library users.

Conclusions

This study had established that an outstanding 81% of the library users in Sarawak were self motivated to read. It was also very encouraging to know that the majority of the users enjoyed visiting the respective libraries. They were primary and secondary students (11-19 years old) with overwhelming majority of females. Moreover, ethnicity comprised of Malay, Iban, Chinese, Melanau, orang Ulu, Bidayuh and others respectively. Generally, they were teenagers and possess healthy reading habits such as buying books on their own. They were interested in reading, love reading material in their own language and love to read books about their culture, they enjoyed coming to library, bought books on their own and their majority habit was reading. This habit in reading informs that they were consistent and it was not accidental.

Self-influenced
It was heartening to find that an outstanding majority (97%) of the users were very much interested in reading and read on their own, were self-influenced (81%), love reading materials in their own language (90%), love to read books about their culture (94%), they enjoyed coming to library (93%) and their majority (73%) habit was reading. The users read comparatively less outside the library, their preferred language was Bahasa Malaysia and English because they understood better. It was noted with concern that a large majority did not participate in reading activities, however, they love to read books written in their mother tongue and about their culture and other cultures as well.

Encouragingly an outstanding majority of users read on their own and shared ideas with friends. Their favourite hobbies were reading, browsing the Internet, listening to music, and watching TV and chatting. Their reading collection included newspapers, magazines, fiction, comic, academic and religious books and they bought these on their own. This indicated that libraries needed more differentiated reading materials to cater for the diverse users’ interests and needs.

Influence of Surrounding Environment
A reasonable number (67%) of users were satisfied with the Internet provision but a substantial number (38%) was unhappy about the quality of the Internet connection and apparently they belonged to villages. There were many users who utilised the Internet and they used it to gain knowledge (57%), pleasure (46%) and academic work (45%). A large majority (83%) was convinced that it enhanced subject knowledge and 88% stated that it had academic advantages. A reasonable majority (64%) of the users were not sure about the website and e-books. This suggested that the users needed more exposure to e-resources. A great majority (88%) thought that the Internet enhanced academic competence. This account clearly showed that utility of the Internet had become indispensable and it ought to have of good performance with regard to connectivity.

The Users’ Suggestions
The users also provided some useful suggestions with descending frequency that included providing quality reading materials (79%), updating collections (63%), welcoming behaviour of staff (59%), community involvement (59%), library accessibility (57%), photocopy/printing services (53%), meeting community’s demands (51%), making library service more customer focused (49%), providing online services (49%), flexibility in operating hours (45%), maximised staff training (44%) reaching the community (43%), updating online and web services (41%) improving catalogue system (38%), lengthening loan period (36%) and providing inter-library loan (34%). Surprisingly, these suggestions showed a close association with the suggestions of the librarians. This warrants that there was a need to improve the provision to encourage and motivate the users to remain consistent with their positive reading habits.

Urban-Rural Differences
The comparative study on rural and urban library users provided significant differences. For instance, there were more Malay users in village libraries and more Iban users in town libraries. There were more memberships in village than in town. The village users came from private sector but town users came both from private and public sectors. The Internet provision was less in village and more in town. The users tended to come on weekends to library whereas villagers came on weekdays. The users in town came on bicycle whereas in village libraries they took van.

The users started reading earlier (7-9 years) in village but later in town (12 years). Town users used more Internet but villagers used more magazines. The users in village preferred to read at night and evenings whereas town users spent more time in the nights. Users from village spent less hours 1 hour on reading whereas users in town spent 2 and half hours. The users of village libraries read more comic books. The users of town libraries did not get information of new arrivals but users in village got verbally from librarians. The users of town suggested improving the quality of books and online updating whereas users in village also requested for more community involvement and improvement in welcoming behaviour of the librarians.

Generally, the village libraries were located very far from the village which caused complication for the children to come whereas town library users had less problems of accessibility. Besides, the road condition with many lorries also created a limitation and thus making the children to visit only when they were accompanied by their parents. Supply of newspapers and latest books was another problem. The village user’s mindset was different from town users as they seldom participated in reading activities. Lack of ICT, i.e. photocopy machine was also another obstacle. Shortage of library staff was the obstacle to promote reading habits whereas town libraries had more staff. Some users in the village libraries were without air conditioner facility. Moreover, there were limited ICT resources in village libraries as compared to town libraries. Slow Internet coverage was the sore problem in village libraries. In certain village libraries there was no Wi Fi connection.

Availability of Full Research Report

The full report of this research is available at the Sarawakiana.