Accessibility Of Academic Library Services To Distance Learners: A Study Of University Of Ghana Library System

ABSTRACT This study seeks to investigate the accessibility of academic library services to distance learners, with specific reference to University of Ghana Library System (UGLS). The general objective of the study is to assess the level of awareness and accessibility of library services to distance students. A survey was conducted and one hundred and thirty eight (138) Level 400 distance learning students in the Accra Learning Centre together with University librarian of the University of Ghana were selected by the convenience and purposive sampling methods to collect primary data using questionnaires and interviews respectively. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and thematic analysis are used to analyze the completed questionnaire and interview responses respectively. The results from the findings revealed that a greater proportion of the respondents were not aware of the library services and programmes. Moreover, it was discovered that most of the subjects acquired their IT training through personal effort other than the University‘s. In addition, the study revealed that quite a number of the respondents were at the intermediate level with regard to IT or computer knowledge. Furthermore, distance learners had no remote access to library electronic resources and other databases and therefore did not strongly agree to the provision of their information needs through social media services. It was also evident that information needs of respondents were mostly not provided for adequately. The study recommended the following to the management of the University of Ghana Library System (UGLS); awareness creation of library resources, user education on Information Literacy of library resources and programmes, encouraging the use of social media, training/user education and initiation on borrowing of library resources.