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 | |
| Sri Aman |
a) Sri Aman Public Library | |
1) Kuching Division - DBKU City Library, Bandar Baru Samariang Village Library and Taman Palma Indah Village Library
2) Sri Aman Division - Sri Aman Public Library, Batu Lintang Village Library and Lingga Public Library
3) Sarikei Division - Sarikei Public Library, Jakar Village library and Selalang Village Library
4) Sibu Division - Sibu Public Library, Bahagia Jaya Village Library and Bawang Assan Village Library
5) Bintulu Division - BDA Public Library, Bintulu (HQ), BDA Public Library, Sebauh Branch and BDA Public Library, Jepak Branch
6) Miri Division - Miri Public Library, Beluru Public Library and Batu Niah Public Library
7) Limbang Division - Limbang Public Library, Kpg. Gedong Village Library ang 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; observations
c) three kinds of interview schedules (head librarians, library assistants and the library users)
d) The research project followed whole and holistic methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools
e) 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 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. They were interested in reading, love reading material in their own language and love to read books about their culture, they enjoy 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.
Full Report
The full report of this research is available in hardcopy at our Sarawakiana.
