Exploring Non-users’ Perceptions Towards the College Library Services in Darjeeling Hill

To know the usefulness of any library, non-user's knowledge and opinion provides much idea about the library concerned. The study was undertaken to assess the attitude of non-users of the college libraries in the hilly areas of Darjeeling district of West Bengal. The structured questionnaire was distributed among 150 non-users comprising teachers, students, non-teaching staff members, and scholars selected from the fifteen Colleges (Government and Govt. Sponsored) affiliated to North Bengal University, Rajarammohunpur, Darjeeling and 2 Primary Teachers Training Colleges and 1 Polytechnic College located in the hilly region. From each college 10 numbers of non-users were picked up with the help of a simple random sampling method and a primary survey was conducted with the help of a structured questionnaire. A total of 150 structured questionnaires were distributed and out of which 128 questionnaires were duly obtained with a response rate of 89%. Apart from this a semi structured interview was conducted with the non-users who are available during the visit to the Colleges. Hence the analysis of the data collected is based on the non-user responses of these 15 college libraries.