English abstract
The study aimed to identify the requirements for the development of a digital library of the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sultan Qaboos and to identify the components and characteristics of the digital library proposed from the viewpoint of the beneficiaries, as well as limit the intellectual production of books, articles and research conferences, lectures and Theses to a professor the department and students, organized and made available digitally as intended study supporting the courses and curriculum in the Department of Information Studies at Sultan Qaboos University.
To achieve the objectives of the study adopted two approaches, namely: the descriptive survey, and his tool questionnaire to identify the needs of beneficiaries included the fifteen question is divided in five axes, and distributed to the popula on of the study, consis ng of 31 (a faculty member and Master's student, Department of Information Studies) and the approach applied in the application of those requirements in building a digital library after analyzing the study data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used frequencies, percentages, and the most important findings of the study:
1. The study found that members of the study population have the awareness of my knowledge, where 87.1% of the community know how to use the computer very well, and there within the community who was a novice in the use of computer and its applica ons, in addi on to the 77.4% use the Internet daily, the comple on of scien cresearch by 96.8% 2. The results showed that most of the elements mentioned by the questionnaire is important for the study population, but to varying degrees for example, a thesis for the Master students have had considerable support since 96.8% of the community sees their presence is important and an element of research and studies and working papers to members of the faculty, the percentage of they see as an important 90.3 %, and was less important element in the view of society is to study proposals for the gradua on projects by 51.6% 3. 93.5 % of the community that they prefer to be a library that specializes in library and informa on science as the most preferred by 67.7% of individuals to have the proposed digital library for all via the Internet, as most members of the community tends to give power to editing for faculty members increased by 45.2% 4. Concluded that the use of the results to the search box is the preferred method for retrieving digital resources of the proposed digital library where the percentage of preferences, while 90.3% was less preferred method is the
way Scout alphabe cal by 25,8% 5. The results showed that all the services of the digital library included in the
questionnaire preferred significantly, where he was the most favorable service to respond to inquiries and suggestions of beneficiaries increased by 100%, followed by the provision of links to books, periodicals, databases, digital open source to meet the needs of beneficiaries, and the search service in all types of library resources digital, and service access to the full text of the subject matter, and the service to send digital source or a link to an email to another other services.
Recommendations:
The study recommends the application of the proposed digital library on the Department of Information Studies and to all the Departments, Faculty of Arts Preparation of training courses for members of the faculty for the proposed digital library and how to use and activate. The study suggests that students are trained in the Department of Information Studies undergraduate to build digital libraries using open source systems
The adoption of the proposed digital library by a university and funding institutions for the purposes of maintenance and development of the circulation of each Departments
