The public library as a service point: study based on the book box project at the Colombo public library, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Most nations of the world maintain public libraries, which are considered to be important for the growth of population education and literacy. Public libraries operate in many countries around the world and are also considered to be an integral part of an educated and literate community. Each public library provides its users with a variety of books and periodicals. In addition to books and periodicals, most of the public libraries now have a wide variety of other media, including CDs, video tapes and DVDs, as well as internet facilities. Public libraries can also have community meeting spaces, children's story-time after-school programs and space for homework assistance programs or other community resources. The main purpose of this survey was to evaluate the Public library as a service point. The data collected in this study would be useful for the formulation of children’s readings and learning plans and preparing new services. The Colombo Public Library was chosen as the case study and this study used a survey approach. The collected data would be enumerated in the survey as the survey methods helps the researcher to collect data on the target population. The population for this study is children under the age of 14 years old. For the collection of the sample, the non-probability purposive sample technique was used. The Questionnaire and Secondary Data were used as a data collecting techniques in this research. According to the sample studied, children from various social groups are registered in this project. Most of the students in schools within the Colombo Metropolitan Area frequently use the Book Box Project. Due to the Unavailability of subjectrelated books, the majority of the readers do not use this service. According to the survey of data, it shows that there is a greater tendency among the readers to use storybooks meant for children. Another important matter observed in the study was that the Book Box Project provided only books. Further, some of the books that children wished to borrow were not available to them in this service. According to the analysis, it reveals further that the Book Box Project had not adopted measures either for improving the taste for reading amongst children or for increasing the membership of the project.