English abstract
This study has been conducted revealing the extent to which the university libraries in the Sultanate of Oman are affected by the global financial crisis and its impact on the activities and services they provide, as well as the extent to which the plans and strategies adopted by them are appropriate. The study adopted the Qualitative Research Method to achieve its objectives and Semi-Structured Methodology to collect data from purposive sample of eight university libraries in the Sultanate, five government university libraries, two private university library, and one community managed university library. A total of 12 directors and head departments of these libraries were interviewed.
This study is important because its subject is related to the importance of funding in supporting the activities of these libraries. It is expected that these libraries will face consecutive financial crises due to the global economic situation; therefore, the results of the study will contribute to finding suitable solutions to confront the impact of such crises on libraries.
The results of the study revealed the extent to which the university libraries in the Sultanate, especially the governmental ones, are affected by the financial crisis; bearing in mind that their funding is centrally linked to the universities they belong to. The study also showed that the most important aspects of libraries affected by the crisis are the funds allocated for providing various sources of information, renewing subscriptions of databases, purchasing or upgrading certain equipment, and maintenance. In addition, the results showed that there are employment-related difficulties facing government university libraries, along with a complete cessation of all staff training activities outside the Sultanate. The study suggested that the staff incentives, promotions and annual bonuses working in these libraries need to be reconsidered. On the other hand, the results showed that these libraries lack the plans and strategies supporting the cooperation projects between university libraries in the Sultanate as one of the alternatives for funding through cooperative participation, and limited cooperation with other university libraries to mitigate the effects of the crisis.
The most important recommendation of the study is to provide some stability in the funding allocated to the university libraries, with continuous evaluation of all their activities in order to determine the appropriate funding to deal with the crisis, and move towards adopting income-generating activities and make advantage of open sourse resourses, and enhance cooperation channels among University Libraries in the Sultanate. It is hoped that the results of this study will contribute to offer a future vision that will limit the impact of the financial crises on libraries.
