Challenges and opportunities in migrating to web-based information services: a case study of Dhaka university library

Abstract

World Wide Web (WWW) and Internet becomes a new media of libraries for information storage and information providing with greater speed and economy. The web technology and Internet has changed the way of information is stored, retrieved and communicated in the libraries. As more libraries move towards providing their services in a digital environment, the improved access to remote library collections is making the use of electronic information resources more realistic and more attractive. This paper discusses about the web-based library services available in Dhaka University Library. This paper focuses on the use of web-based library services by the Dhaka University Library users and examines how DUL provides web access to its collections and user support for that access and the problems faced by the users in accessing web-based library services. Findings show that DUL is yet to exploit full potential of the web forms, and lagging behind in effective use of library website as it has some problems like ICT-infrastructure and manpower. It is also troubled with slow speed internet connection. This paper highlights the current state of web-based library services against which DUL can benchmark its own web-based library services. This paper also has some recommendations for increasing the effective use of web-based library services.