تصورات و آراء المستخدمين حول الخدمات المرجعية الرقمية في المكتبات الأكاديمية في المملكة العربية السعودية

Abstract EN

This research paper begins with an introduction about academic library, its importance, role, the development of reference services, the concept of digital reference services (DRS), and styles of providing DRS, then it presents previous studies on this topic.

This research aims to explore the perceptions of users and librarians of DRS provided by academic libraries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), identify the types of DRS provided, and discover the difficulties and challenges related to using DRS.

This research adopted quantitative and qualitative approaches using a questionnaire to collect data from eight academic libraries in the KSA.

The results showed that 62.5% of DRS users are Bachelor holders, that all surveyed universities use modern styles of providing DRS, and that the most used tools are e-mail, followed by social media.

The respondents agreed that the main common services provided by libraries include current awareness services by 96.9%, selective dissemination of information by 95.6%, Q&A by 95%.

The results also showed that 3.42 years are the average years of experience of using DRS, the level of users' satisfaction of the way academic libraries provide DRS was very good by 72.5%, and that one of the most important difficulties and challenges facing DRS usage is the Internet disconnection by 31.31%.