Attitudes of academic library professionals towards computer-based systems in Taiwan

Abstract

Reports the results of a questionnaire survey to determine the attitudes of professional academic library staff in Taiwan towards computerized library systems. Seventy-six ques tionnaires were sent to 10 university libraries known to have installed computerized library systems and fol low up telephone interviews were conducted. Results were compared with those of an earlier study per formed in the USA which related to professional academic library staff in 13 academic libraries in the Midwest. Very little difference was found between the attitudes of librar ians in the two countries and one of the hypotheses guiding the study, that no significant differences exist between the attitudes of librarians in Taiwan and the USA, was supported. 'Student t' tests of the categorizations of attitudes indicate that librarians in Taiwan are significantly more neg ative towards computers in general than they are about the effects on people and services. Results suggest that there is still room for improve ment in the overall computerized sys tems environment in academic libraries in Taiwan.