Utilization of law libraries by Legal professionals in Rwanda

Abstract

Though Law Libraries in Rwanda were established to meet the information needs of legal professionals, it has been observed that they remain underutilized. Nonetheless, no study has been undertaken to establish the reasons behind that underutilization. The aim of this study was to investigate the utilization of law libraries by legal professionals and recommends ways of enhancing their utilization. The specific objectives were to: determine the range of information resources and services provided by law libraries, examine the extent to which Legal professionals utilize law libraries, determine the extent to which the library resources and services meet the needs of legal professionals, examine the information policies governing law libraries, analyse the use of ICTs in law libraries, examine the factors that inhibit library use by legal professionals and propose strategies for promoting the usage of law libraries. The study was guided by Gorman and Crawford five Laws of Librarianship. This study adopted a mixed research approach and a survey research design. The study population comprised users and Libraries staff. A sample of 63 users and 4 staff was drawn from a population of 335 users and 7 staff. The 63 Library users were identified through stratified sampling method whereby each Law Library formed a stratum and the respondents from each Library were randomly selected. Data were collected by the use of questionnaires for users and interviews for staff. The study established that Law libraries did not have adequate resources necessary for legal professionals‟ day to day activities and that law libraries were not utilized on a regular basis. It was also observed that the utilization of law libraries was impeded by inadequacy of resources, irrelevance of some available resources, inefficient library use policies, inadequate integration of ICTs in information processing and dissemination and ineffective information services. The study concluded that law libraries were not maximally utilized. The study recommends regular user studies, update of law libraries in terms of quality and quantity of resources, full integration of ICTs in information processing and dissemination, employing qualified staff, well-articulated information access and use policies, establishment of a Law Libraries consortium, provision of adequate fund, improving existing libraries services.