A Survey of User Education in Small-Sized College Libraries in Japan

Abstract

This paper is a report of a survey of formal library user education offered at 268 small-sized college libraries.The survey method is the same as one adopted for mid-sized university libraries in 1994. The survey revealed that 105 of the 268 libraries planned their own orientation independertly of their parent organizations and that 132 libraries set up additional programs besides normal orientation.It is found that, comparing with large or mid-sized university libraries, more college libraries provide independent orientations programs accompanied with library tours.It is also found that college libraries can not be divided into two distinct groups found in mid-sized university libraries as far as user education programs are concerned.One group is those libraries which provided much more advanced user education programs.The other one is those which provided only minimal orientation programs.