AN EVALUATION OF THE AVAILABILITY OF RECOMMENDED BOOKS FOR THE BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY DEGREE PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

This study assesses the accessibility of recommended texts for the Buddhist Psychology degree program at the University of Kelaniya, emphasizing the sufficiency of the Main Library's collection. The study utilized a descriptive design, incorporating the official recommended book list of 255 titles sourced from the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies. We used the Main Library's Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) to see if each title was available. The results show that there is a big gap in the Main Library's collection: only 78 books (30.6%) were available, while 177 books (69.4%) were not. Most of the available titles (67.9%) were published before 2000, which shows that there aren't many new books. The collection had a fairly even split between languages, with 51.3% in Sinhala and 48.7% in English. Most titles (90.2%) could be found in both the lending and reference sections. However, the number of copies varied, with more than half of the books only having one or two copies. In conclusion, the study reveals a significant disparity between the suggested reading materials and the existing library collections, creating obstacles for students and researchers. It says that the university Main Library should focus on getting missing books, adding new ones, and getting more copies of popular books to improve the quality of resources and academic support for the degree program.