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In the prevailing competitive environment, libraries seem difficult to survive with traditional information services. Many of business organizations seem to practice multidimensional businesses and expand their profit potentials through diversification. Getting experience from business sector organizations, university libraries need to strategize the service delivery and retain the users through diversification of the product/service. Diversification can be implemented through innovation of directly related library services, indirectly related services and additional services probably not related to the typical library service but would be possible to provide by the library (out of the box). This paper investigates the Sri Lankan university librarians' perspective towards the implementation of such services in their libraries. The study also examines the possible barriers for the diversification. The paper involved the conceptual analysis and sample survey with library practitioners. Findings indicate that university libraries in Sri Lanka are providing diversity of services and have made many attempts to diversify them through 'direct library services', 'indirect library services' and 'additional services'. Relatively higher potential is shown with regard to directly and indirectly related services but the diversification through additional services indicated very low. The librarians face challenges for diversification stretching out through administrative factors, knowledge deficiencies, organizational environment and attitudinal issues of library managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper tries to analyse the role of the university librarian using a sociological definition for the role. Considers the University as a social institution and how the role of the librarian evolved to meet the changes taking place in the Universities. Elaborates management and functional competencies, qualities, technological and human relations skills they need to develop in order to cope with the modern Information environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries should explore the marketing strategies to be used to promote their services among users, to entice new users and retain existing users. The objectives of this study were to find out the marketing techniques used in Sri Lankan university libraries and identify the challenges that university librarians face when marketing their services. The study involved 130 academic staff members of the libraries in 15 state universities established under the purview of the University Grants Commission in Sri Lanka. The total population was considered as the sample and the data were collected through self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software package considering the mean and standard deviation. There were 105 valid questionnaires among returns, and the response rate was 80.8%. As per the results, library websites, user orientation seminars, notice boards, and e-mail notifications were most frequently used to promote library services. Mobile applications, blogs and podcasts were rarely used to promote library services in Sri Lankan universities. The mean ratings of perceived challenges in the marketing of library services by university librarians in Sri Lanka were considered. Lack of networking among librarians (3.54) was identified as a significant challenge faced by Sri Lankan university librarians when marketing their services. Other significant challenges were unawareness of library user requirements, insufficient funds for marketing, increased cost of marketing and lack of skills in marketing library services. This concludes that Sri Lankan university librarians market their library services using an array of techniques and come across various challenges while adopting marketing techniques to their services. To overcome these challenges libraries should consider appointing a marketing librarian for each university library and establish a collaboration between them, develop a unique marketing strategy for each library, and allocation of funds for marketing library services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information has becoming the most valuable asset in the emerging world. Hence, information has become one of the major driving forces that lead a country towards sustainable development. While the libraries and other information centers are closed around the world, it could be adversely affected on the economy and general livelihood of the society. Thus, continuing the information services uninterruptedly is a matter of significance. However, the continuum of library services during lock-down situations and post-pandemic scenarios should be practice with proper care and understanding, especially during the post-pandemic conditions when re-commencing work in an academic library after the lock-down situation. Prevailing COVID -19 pandemic has provided an eye-opening lesson for academic librarians to re-think the way they perform and in what ways they can prepare for the post-pandemic reopening of the library. With the knowledge of the COVID -19 pandemic and related pathological nature of the virus, the present approach attempts to formulate an input while reopening the academic libraries of Sri Lanka. The concept also is applicable while planning to provide library services in similar post-lockdown scenarios. Practical safety precautions were suggested after conducting a thorough literature search in relevant and reputed journal databases, magazines and official websites. It can be recommended that the library should formulate a dedicated body, with the leadership of one senior member of the library staff for the overall monitoring and assessment of the pandemic-safety in the reopening time. Awareness of the libraries' stakeholders via different mediums, develop policies for disinfection, meetings, and other official tasks can be suggested. Following a country-specific existing-strategy that developed for the libraries of Sri Lanka is highly recommended. As a summary, the academic library should formulate an integrated pandemic prevention protocol to serve the library patrons with a delightful post-pandemic reopening experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries and in particular, university libraries around the globe are constantly revolutionized due to technological advancements which provide rich opportunities for libraries to embed blends of innovations into the work environment and render better services for their user communities. This research attempted to render views of library academics with regard to their current use of Social Network Sites (SNS) in the workplace. The objectives of the study were to investigate the background of SNS use by university library academics inclusive of their usage experience, skills and frequency of use, to examine the types of SNS used by them, professional purposes as well as personal purposes for using SNS in the workplace and to investigate the access methods and user perceptions towards SNS use in the workplace. Data were gathered from a study population of 116 university librarians in Sri Lanka via the survey strategy based on a questionnaire and the data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. The key findings of the study included that the majority (78.4%) of university librarians who participated in the survey used SNS in the workplace, respondents who had 1-5year experience in using SNS were in majority (44.8%), a high percentage (64.7%) of respondents assessed themselves as having "moderate experience" in using SNS, more than half (52.6%) of the respondents felt that they possessed adequate skills to use SNS, Facebook was the social network site most frequently used by the respondents (64.7%), most university librarians used SNS in the workplace to fulfill both professional and personal purposes, while the highest percentage of university librarians (58.6%) used SNS in the workplace for the specific professional purpose of "interacting with co-workers and professionals in the field" and the highest percentage of them (47.4%) used SNS for the specific personal purpose of "personal contact", and the majority of them used the university network to access SNS in the workplace. Sri Lankan university librarians should keep pace with new innovative technologies such as SNS to remain worthy and important in this competitive digital world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the influence of gender on job satisfaction among university library professionals in Sri Lanka. Survey design was adopted for the study. The general objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of gender differences on the level of job satisfaction among the professional staff of the university libraries in Sri Lanka. Five parameters were considered. They were work, co-workers, compensation, promotion and supervision. The population of the study consisted of 125 library professionals of 15 universities under the University Grants Commission in Sri Lanka. All members of the population were given the opportunity to participate in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as the main data collection instrument. The response rate was 64%. Cronbach's alpha values of all variables are above 0.6 (work: 0.764, co-workers: 0.864, compensation: 0.661, promotion: 0.614 and supervision: 0.963). The instrument used to measure each variable in the current study is reliable and all the items are positively correlated to one another. The mean of job satisfaction of all aspects: work; co-workers; compensation; promotion and supervision is higher in Females (0.9200, 0.8021, 0.6521, 0.6667, 0.7243) than males (0.7277, 0.6406, 0.5250, 0.3854, -0.0052). The results indicated that there is a significant difference of job satisfaction between male and female university library professionals only in the "supervision" parameter. The overall job satisfaction of both male and female (3.77) university library professionals is equal. However, equal treatment to both genders will help to achieve higher satisfaction levels. The findings of the study will be helpful for librarians and administrators to develop a motivated and productive workforce for organizational success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]