An Assessment of User Information Needs in the District Central Libraries at Tamil Nadu, India.

The study shows that a majority of the respondents belonged to male (59.08%) category whereas the remaining belonged to female (40.92%) category, Majority of the respondents in this survey were married 354 (56.37%) whereas the remaining respondents were 274 (43.63%) unmarried who belonged to the category of students or younger generation., The study reveals that majority of the respondents i.e. 144 (22.93%) were from the age group of up to 25 years and very few respondents i.e. 56 (8.92%) belonged to the age group of 66 and above, The survey finding reveals that majority of the respondents were bachelor's degree holders 162 (25.80%) and very few respondents were qualified in Technical and other fields 84 (13.38%).The study reveals that the majority of the respondents were from the student community 156 (24.84%) which was followed by the retired person 109 (17.36%), unemployed youth 107 (17.04%), employee in private sector 104 (16.56%) and employee in government sector 80 (12.74%). The findings reveal that majority of the respondents 255 (40.61%) were getting a monthly income of Rs. 5001-10,000 whereas few respondents 71(11.31%) were getting a monthly income of below Rs.3, 000.The findings reveal that majority of the respondents 479 (76.27%) are the member of public library. Out of 76.27 percentages, male respondents contributed 47.29% and female respondents contributed 28.98% to this study. Smaller percentage of respondents 149 (23.73%) who belonged to the non member category also contributed to this study. It is understood that out of 628 respondents, the majority of them 63.2% are visiting the library more than twice in a week and few respondents are visiting the library once in a month. It is understood that majority of the respondents spent one to two hours of time in the library and few respondents spent more than three hours of time in the library, Majority of the respondents i.e. 229 (36.46%) prefer to visit the public library in the evening, Therefore, evening is most preferred and suitable time for the visit to the library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]