Browsing by Author "Gunawardhana, D.N.T."

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Enhancing the Service Level of Library Staff: A Study of University of Moratuwa Library, Sri Lanka.
(Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka., 2017) Gunawardhana, D.N.T.; Weerasooriya, W. A.; Kodikara, R.C.
Service quality of library staff is one of the performance indicators of a library. The assessment of service quality provides an important feedback for libraries to assess and improve its services to its users. Enhancing the information resources and facilities are not enough to hold the users in the library with the rapid improvement of the technology. ‘Improving the Service Level of Library Staff’ has become a marketing tool in above situation. The objective of the research was to find out the ways to improve the Service Level of Library staff of University of Moratuwa Library. Students of the university were the population of this research and random sampling technique was used to select the sample. Survey was conducted to collect data from students and both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analysis. According to results of the survey, students were very satisfied with the service provided by library staff.However they have requested to resolve the background issues and build a conclusive learning environment. Increasing the library opening hours was a very important requirement for the users. Participants have suggested following when using library services; conducting training programs and workshops for library staff, having a session for staff in every month to introduce new concepts in the information field, improving the language ability of Tamil; writing, reading and speaking etc. Developing a ‘Performance Appreciation System’ to measure the service performance of library staffwould be helpful to motivate them to reach organizational goals.
Impact of Bibliotherapy for Solving the Students' Matters Using the ‘IMIF’ Model: Case Study
(Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2023) Gunawardhana, D.N.T.
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic technique for different mental problems. Although it is a popular therapeutic tool in foreign countries, it is a rare experience in Sri Lanka. The researcher has been practicing this tool in the selected university. The IMIF model is a model that the researcher herself introduced based on the experiences she had collected from the bibliotherapy practice. The research objective of this research was to identify the impact of the ‘IMIF’ model to solve the student's matters. The model has four stages: Initial, mirroring, insight, and follow-up. Identifying and analyzing the issue, assessing the problem, deciding the risk level, and giving book prescriptions are included in the initial stage. Task allocation through reading, writing, drawing, role-playing, and post-reading discussion are included in the Mirroring process. The Insight increases awareness, empowers problem-solving skills, and strengthens inner feelings. The final stage is the follow-up, where an assessment is carried out. According to the evaluation process, clients can return to the mirroring or insight stage. The ‘IMIF’ model was used to solve student matters of the selected university. This is qualitative research. Data collection tools were observations and interviews. The population of this research study was the students of the selected university. Thirty students were included in the sample according to the purposive sampling method. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The majority have been cured with bibliotherapy. At the follow-up stage, it was observed that 10% of the participants had not followed the counselor’s recommendations. 60% of the participants requested a list of book prescriptions from the counsellor. 30% of the participants selected books from the Library according to their preference and got the counselor's recommendation. 20% of the participants requested a new list of book prescriptions from time to time without fulfilling the tasks. The counselor used creative bibliotherapy techniques to assign different tasks accordingly. Almost all students have pointed out the benefits they received after attending these sessions. This research was limited to a small sample since it needed in-depth analysis. Further research is needed to create different book prescription lists for each mental disease.
Initiating the “Research Commons” in University Libraries in Sri Lanka: Exploratory Review
(3rd International Conference on Library and Information Management, Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Gunawardhana, D.N.T.; Weerasooriya, W. A.
Enhancing opportunities for research works is a premier objective in universities due to researches contribute in many ways for knowledge creation. Serve and meet the needs of researchers are considered as a foremost aim of university libraries. Newly introduced non-traditional resources and services create many openings for researchers. University libraries have being focusing more strongly on learner-centered and researcher-centered services today. Information commons, research commons, human library projects, counseling and consultation services, digital resource collections are new services in libraries. Research Commons is a very important concept among them and it has become “one-stop shopping” model for researchers in foreign universities. There is no Research Commons experience yet in Sri Lanka and it need to be developed in all libraries. Research Commons is a “knowledge-creation space” than “learning space”. Reviewed research articles, books, and web sites relevant to this concept were facilitated to conduct this study very much. Objective of this research work is to introduce the concept of “Research Commons” and discuss the approaches to initiate Research Commons in university libraries in Sri Lanka
MEASURING THE SERVICE QUALITY OF LIBRARY STAFF OF TI-IE UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA, SRI LANKA ON STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVES.
(2016) Gunawardhana, D.N.T.
This study exammes the Measure the Service Quality of Library Staff of the University of Moratuwa. Sri I.anka on Students' Perspectives. Users are being gradually moved to electronic libraries and other information sources. Enhancing the information resources and facilities are not enough to hold the users in the library and it is necessary to improve the services like customer care by the library stafT. With this technological era human resources has become most important asset than physical resources. Therefore. to measure the service quality of I.ibrary Staff on students' perspectives is very important research area with different directions. The quality of services provided by the Library Staff at expected and observed levels has been examined from the students using a modified version of the ServQUAL questionnaire. Three factors and fitieen dimensions have been identified that arc appropriate to explain service quality from students' perspectives. The findings revealed that 'overall service quality' afTects to 'frequency of library usc' and 'recommend others to usc the library'. Conducting training programs and workshops for stan: establish thc research help desk. have a session to introduce new concepts in the information field in every month. maintain a system to get feedback continuously. resolve the background issues to improve the services. and are important strategies for service quality improvements. Findings revealed that as a whole. students arc generally satisfied with the service provided by library staff of University of Moratuwa.