Use of Public Library Services by Differently abled Persons: A Pilot Study of City Central Library, Dharwad

In this article, an attempt has been made to investigate whether differently abled persons effectively using public library services or not. For the study, 50 questionnaires were distributed to differently abled persons and finally 43 (86%) questionnaires were considered for analysis based on the merit of the filled questionnaires. The analysis of the data revealed that, differently abled persons use City Central Library services very rarely and majority rather all of them were physically disabled persons. Another finding is that, Information needs of differently abled persons are same as other abled persons. It is rather disappointing that majority i.e. 69.77% of information needs of differently abled persons remain un-satisfied. Inaccessibility, Lack of reading materials in alternative formats, special services and Lack of assistive technologies with access to computers are the major problems faced by the differently abled persons. The study concludes with some of the important suggestions for development of information resources, services and infrastructure facilities of the CCL in order to provide better services and to improve the collection to satisfy the needs of differently abled persons.