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Establishment of public libraries is regarded as one of the essential amenities of the local or central government of a nation since they enhance the idea of free and equal access to information and offers their collections and services to all members of the community. This study revealed the present status of the public libraries in the Jaffna District. Apart from the Jaffna Public Library, which is managed by the Jaffna Municipal Council and provide services to the whole Jaffna District, presently there are 03 Urban Council libraries, 13 Pradeshiya Sabha libraries and 907 Community Center libraries, which cater the needs of the general public of the respective areas in the Jaffna District. Conflict situation which prevailed in the region for the past 30 years severely affected the library services, too. After signing the MOU between the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE in 2002, many foreign and local Non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies started to reconstruct and develop some of the public libraries of Jaffna District with the foreign funded projects. This study identified the major challenges for these public libraries, at present. Those are insufficient funding and inadequate infrastructure facilities, poor collection of e-resources and use of IT, dearth of professional and personal competencies among library staff, poor participation in CPD programs, lack of interest and motivation from authorities, and absence of library cooperation. It is recommended to have advocacy programs for all the stakeholders of these public libraries, adopt modern etechnology services in the library functionalities, organise regular user education programs for readers with regard to library services, conduct CPD programs and training sessions especially for the enhancement of professional and personal competencies among librarians of this region, and establish a library consortia to coordinate the activities of the libraries in the Jaffna District. With this type of support, public libraries of this region are expected to survive, and also thrive in continuing to provide valuable service in the information age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the results of the user satisfaction survey conducted in the Jaffna University library among the undergraduates of general degree bioscience students in August 2010. The objectives of the study were to assess the library user satisfaction regarding the currently available information sources and services and to identify the unmet needs of the undergraduates for the future developments in the library. Self administered questionnaire survey was conducted among these undergraduates. The study revealed that the library retains as essential component to facilitate the general degree bioscience undergraduates' learning and research activities. The study clearly enumerated that the efficiency of some of the presently available services such as photocopying services, interlibrary loan services, selective dissemination of information and current awareness service were not met the undergraduates' expectations. . The findings of the survey leave plenty of scope for improvement in library activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]