University Library Building Planning In Sri Lanka A Comparative Study

Abstract

Library is cultural centre for a community. It is known as the heart of aneducational institution. (Mishra, 2004) mainly university library is a place which sharesuniversal knowledge and provides information for students and academic staff for theireducation and research purposes. Planning a library building is the most importantresponsibility of librarianship. Mainly the university library is expected to cater to thevaried needs and requirements of undergraduate, post- graduate, research scholars andother academic and non- academic library members. The collection of university libraryconsists of books connected with their subject related information as well as researchand teaching needs. In addition university library occupies recreational of and literarysources too.

The primary objective of the study is to find out state of the art of planning auniversity library building in Sri Lanka. The second objective is to find out favorablefactors which contribute toward the university library buildings planning in Sri Lanka.This was done as a survey research. Primary data was collected circulating twostructured questionnaires among the first year, final year student, librarians, seniorassistant librarians and assistant librarians.

When the data were analyzed it was found that the librarian and the architectshould need to work closely to understanding of the requirements of library system. Aswell as librarians must have to knowledge about the library functions, space, workingcapacity, combination of the duties, staff needs and user needs.

Key words: University library, University library building