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New King Fahad National Library In Riyadh Research Paper

New King Fahad National Library in Riyadh The rise of the electronic medium of media amongst the masses has become the main motive of decrease in the progress of printed tools and materials along with the decrease in using the academic materials. Each one of these new developments combined with the data of students visiting the library has laid down numerous claims on the entire abolishment of the standard structure of a library. Nonetheless, some researchers have aggressively suggested incorporating the "social" spaces such as for example cafes, museums and theaters; creating a mutual group study and forming "information commons," while some have simply given up the idea of the subsistence of the traditional form of libraries. The assorted reactions to the down sides of the King Fahad National Library have embedded the concept that libraries facilitate a lot more than just being truly a storeroom or a storage facility for the printed materials and texts (Carlson, 2001).

For example, the King Fahad National Library are just storerooms of the books however the patrons' growing reliance on the electronic media which could supply the information at any point of time and anywhere indeed means the finish of the King Fahad National Library as it presently exists. Remodeling of the libraries might be required. However, the King Fahad National Library have never been merely truly a book storage facility. Traditionally, people could potentially use these libraries in the future not just for the intellectual material they might avail from there but in addition can utilize the environmental surroundings that can be engaged alongside those materials. The increased popularity of the electronic media may connote that individuals are no more required to come quickly to the libraries for the info they require. However, you will find individuals who still visit libraries (Wisner, 2001). They arrive primarily to still enjoy the studious environment as you're watching the others and being watched by the others, quietly occupied in the similar solemn studious activities (Wisner, 2001).

The fact of the matter is that most communal libraries and the social the King Fahad National Library aren't similar in framework or structure. The social library structure images a collaborative library, where the students as well as the teachers can contribute and interact in order to produce new some ideas. Spaces and models might be designed to facilitate the discussions and mutual work by including some social activities and services such as for example coffee shops, galleries, group study services and information portals as aforementioned. The only real issue with the social model is that it ignores the fundamental ingredient of the King Fahad National Library which is the communal nature of silence and serious study. Communal function is deemed the private activity which will primarily be studious, meditative and silent. However, social function is made for the group activities where it is completely opposite to the communal function. It's not always studious, not necessarily meditative and not at all silent (Wisner, 2001).

However, declining the social function position in the King Fahad National Library will be a wrong notion because it has been proving that it can improve the overall opportunities, services and facilities that are needed to draw back even more students and teachers back to the libraries and outside of the electronic world. To a certain degree the promotion of the services and facilities which are being supplied by the social activities in this manner ends up weakening the communal activities. Moreover, the worthiness added by the social activities isn't clear, both in the broader facet of helping the study undertakings of the universities or the narrow facet of escalating the library usage (Wisner, 2001).

Many people have declared that the King Fahad National Library have been abolished because of these ideas. William Wisner argued that individuals should acknowledge that the goals of the standard libraries have to come quickly to an appropriate alteration because if they don't, the dynamics of the traditional libraray structure will most likely disappear in the coming century. And when the e-books get to be the perfect medium for reading, it'll seal the deal for the traditional libraries. Others think that revitalizing and reforming the King Fahad National Library with various services and facilities can sustain it in some shape or form. Among the reasons for this revolution has been a heightened trend of the larger education. It is believed by the sociologists that knowledge can't be manufactured by researchers working privately in the libraries, it's a social process. Truly, knowledge is believed to be a socially constructed phenomenon. The type of the...

Professors and the students acknowledge the training within this mutual process. These new ideas have made the professors help to prevent relying on the results of the exams alone. They have been now giving more group projects. These groups' project actually exhibits the procedure of knowledge creation because the students have already been given opportunities to talk about their some ideas mutually (Wisner, 2001).
Background of the study

In this particular study, the focus will primarily be on the King Fahad National Library and how it needs to be revitalized out of the traditional library structure to draw more attentions on the overall importance of reading books and hence growing on a personal and communal level. For this, a new marketing approach will need to be taken whereby the customers i.e. The readers are not only drawn back into the libraries but the employees are also trained to treat them with the respect that they deserve as the libraries will most likely die out without these customers.

Gone are the days when public sector employees within Saudi Arabia held natural respect and attention towards their customers. Now, the library being a public sector organization doesn't give the privilege to just arrange the product or service and wait for the customer to come by himself. This is the age of marketing, the age of satisfying customer, customer and only customer. Whether it's manufacturing or services or even a human being looking for job, all of them need the right marketing to satisfy the one who pays for their work. The concept of complete customer satisfaction isn't just limited to the kind of product. It has also entered the domain of who is selling them. This is where the King Fahad National Library come into play.

During these customer-is-always-right days, libraries having a plethora of books including the ones that just can't be found anywhere else or the very latest ones can't completely satisfy the customer just by these aspects. They also need marketing and customer satisfaction tools to make the customer know, understand and like their service. For instance, St. Clair (1993) examines how organizations can better serve their customers in the age of information; the author explains the basic principle of trying to put your feet in the others' shoes. In order to make the customer perceptions better, the management will need to look at themselves from customers' perspective. They will need to know what customers really expect, actually get and just do not value. Now that we are viewing the libraries as businesses (even though non-profit or not-for-profit), we can use basic business research methods to ascertain what customers want. Three of those basic methods include the following three most commonly used methods:

1. Conducting customer surveys;

2. Performing a needs analysis; and

3. Conducting an information audit (St. Clair, 1993).

Conducting customer surveys involves developing questionnaires about customer's perception of library services and getting them filled by the customers. On a higher level, performing a needs analysis means interviewing the customers yourself or through focus groups. Focus groups have a slightly more formal approach where more customer effort is needed to provide feedback. Specifically, focus groups are little groups that take part in deliberations over service quality problems. A mediator is present to conduct the sessions. On an even more complex level, information audits are performed which entails intricate procedures of analyzing the information sources along with the services to achieve better information passage and more transparent customer to management channels (St. Clair, 1993). A Customer Service Plan capturing goals and standards for customer service is also recommended by a number of researchers. However, the plan itself won't be enough unless it is followed up by the usage of survey, focus groups and continuous consumer behavior and satisfaction surveillance.

The distinct and very innovative yet practical suggestions are given by Hernon and Altman (1996) in their study of Service Quality in The King Fahad National Library. They talk about employing technology to catch customer behavior accurately and then use it to improve the service. Some of those technological and technical suggestions include placing video cameras to collect the data, monitor live customer behavior and have an instant access to the responses of customers to a stimulus. The authors also provide a lengthy checklist to review those videos. Service…

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References

Armitage, C.J. And C. Mark (2001). "Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: A meta analytic review." The British Journal of Social Psychology 40: 471.

Bagozzi, R.P. And Lee, K-H. (2002). "Multiple routes for social influence: The role of compliance, internalization, and social identity." Social Psychology Quarterly 65(3): 226.

Barbara Fister, "Common Ground: Libraries and Learning," Library Issues, 25 (Sept. 2004): 2.

Beagle, D. (1999). "Conceptualizing an Information Commons," The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 25 (Mar. 1999): 85.
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