Effective library provision in Ghanaian communities: case study of Dunkwa-On-Offin branch library

Abstract

Public library is an integral part of the community. It has the social obligation to serve the whole community. This study examined the effective library provision in Ghanaian communities, in order to ascertain the problem of low patronage of community libraries in Ghana. The population for the study comprises registered and non-registered patrons of the facility. From the total population of 300, a sample of 100 respondents were drawn and used for the study. Out of the 100 questionnaires administered, 96 were completed and returned. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data using frequency counts, tables and percentages. The findings shows that majority of the users were students who use the library for study purpose. The study also revealed that information resources were outdated and facilities provided in the library was inadequate and inappropriate, culminating in low patronage of the facility. This situation was due to poor funding from both national and local government to the Ghana Library Authority who are mandated to oversee the operations of the community libraries in the country. The researchers suggested that the government and all stakeholders in the education sector must ensure proper financial support to libraries to enable them acquire and procure all necessary logistics that can improve quality of services. Also Internet facilities should be available in all community libraries to ensure generation of incomes to support their operations