Attitudes concerning information technology of librarians employed in government-supported special libraries in Malaysia.

Abstract

This study investigated the attitudes and perceptions of librarians in government-supported special libraries in Malaysia. It also examined the extent the application of information technology and their use patterns. A total of 120 librarians from the government supported special libraries in Malaysia were surveyed by mail questionnaires. The findings of the study were discovered through the application of various statistical methods, including the Chi-Square goodness of fit test, the Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Classification Analysis, in order to see a significant difference between the level sof each variable. Given the results of Chi-Square goodness fit test and Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficients, the data showed a relationship between the librarians' attitudes toward information technology and the amount of technology available in government-supported special libraries. A relationship was also found between the librarians' attitudes toward cost and resource allocation and the amount of technology available. In the interviews it was found that while most librarians agreed with the notion that information technology provides some of the more effective ways for efficient services, budgetary constraints forced them to give priorities to other aspects of collection development. Their attitudes toward education and training was not positively related to the amount of technology available in the libraries. No significant relationship between the librarians' attitudes toward the impact of information technology and the amount of technology was found, however. Related with the above findings is the significant relationships that were determined between the librarians' attitudes and the amount of expenditures for information technology for the years 1984 through 1988, and awareness of the potential of information technology. The six variables that have significant relationships with the librarians' attitudes are the size of the library, the library's budget for 1988, the staff's size, age, the recency of attaining professional qualifications, and knowledge in information technology. The Multiple Classification Analysis indicated that knowledge in technology, library's budget, the size of the library staff and the size of the library are good predictors of the librarians' attitudes toward technology. While the application of technology was low in the libraries, this study found that the librarians' positive attitudes are capable of increasing the libraries' potential to purchase and use new information technologies, given adequate financial support.