The Iligan City Public Library and Services: Its Community Sectors’ Awareness and Responses

Abstract

This descriptive study was conducted in Iligan City, northern coast of Mindanao, occupying the Southern portion of the Philippine archipelago. This is a survey of 462 respondents coming from the cross-section of the communities during the Calendar Year 2012 to assess if the City Public Library was able to level the library services as based on its collections. Moreover, personal interviews were conducted, daily statistics on library users was utilized, and survey questionnaire on awareness, patronage, gauge of services against needs, other information sources information needs, and library resources were done in data gathering. Findings revealed that of the 313,291 total population (as of 2012 census) which is the target users of the city public library, only 8,397 or 2.68% actually made use of its library services. Out of this, an overwhelming majority or 88.46% are students, followed by the children with 4.74% and the professionals with 3.87% patronage. There has been no patronage from the handicaps and inmates and very least from the out-of-school-youth, non professionals, and senior citizens. Factors affecting these wide gaps between the legitimate and the actual users include: awareness in ICPL’s existence and the mandate of Republic Act 7743, geographical accessibility, policies of ICPL, library services, and the presence of other information centers within the city. These findings imply that the Iligan City Public Library must plan massive reach-out programs in order to bring the library resources closer to all sectors of its intended users which are the whole of the Iligan City community.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n3p227