Online Library Systems for Malaysian School Libraries: An Experimental Approach

Abstract

This paper describes the development of two experimental school library information systems for Malaysian schools. The results of a user study, conducted using different sets of questionnaire for both types of schools indicated that students in general, borrowed books from the library by browsing the shelves. Students seldom used the catalogue card for searching and only a small percentage reported that they were able to find the books successfully using the catalogue card. Based on the findings, a conceptual model of the prototype automated catalogue was developed - Virtual Library for use in primary schools, and ELIS for secondary schools. Both systems are divided into two main modules, the Administrator and the User module. User acceptance test showed that the majority of students found the systems user friendly. Students were also successful in the search tasks given. A high majority described the graphical user interface to be attractive and simple. This indicates the feasibility of using the systems for school libraries in Malaysia.