Effective Factors on Users Satisfaction in Digital Libraries

Abstract

The active presence of students in the academic libraries has been on a steady decline throughout the digital era. The current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the factors affecting the quality of academic library spaces. The research method was correlational and the target population has consisted of all central library users of top universities in Tehran. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 246 users of the academic libraries, from January to March 2019. Respondents were selected using cluster sampling method. The users’ satisfaction on academic library questionnaire was completed by all participants. Respondents ranked their responses among each of the variables by using Likert scale. 210 questionnaires were included in the final analysis after exclusion of 36 questionnaires with missing data. Data analyses were done by using SPSS software and the validity of the questionnaire was analyzed. To process information and identify categories of items of questionnaires, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used and three major factors of users’ satisfaction in libraries have been extracted according to the users’ opinion. Results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between users’ satisfaction and place attachment and functions of interior spaces (r=0.662, p<0.01), software infrastructure (r=0.589, p<0.01) and environmental comfort and aesthetics (r=0.193, p<0.05). It is clear that these components should be considered by designers and architects, in order to obedience of provided regulations can solve the present difficulties of academic libraries.

Keywords

• digital libraries
• researchers’ satisfaction
• software infrastructure
• physical spaces