The evidence based approach in determining the service policy of libraries: the reality of digital hybrids

Although they are non-profit making organisations, the main aim of libraries is to satisfy their customers, that is, the library users. This aim is achieved as long as the needs and expectations of the users are met. For this reason, the libraries must know their users very well and must provide a service which fulfils their needs and expectations. Therefore, rather than following fashionable or popular approaches which are discussed in the literature, libraries should carry out their own analyses and develop an evidence-based service policy for their users. In this study, it is stressed that the users of the library, who form one of the basic elements of the library, are not now necessarily divided into 2 distinct groups of "digital natives" and "digital immigrants", as stated in the literature, but are, in fact, mostly "digital hybrids". The study also examines how to user group of "digital hybrids" has an effect on the management procedures of the library and how this element affects the management of the other elements. The aims of this study are to demonstrate using an evidence-based approach, that university students in Turkey, like the university libraries which serve them, display hybrid patterns of behaviour in their approach to accessing information; and to emphasise that it is necessary, when providing service, to analyse the target group and to take an approach which is not opinion-based, but evidence-based.

Evidence-Based Approach ,

Digital Natives ,

Digital İmmigrants ,

Digital Hybrids ,

User Needs And Expectations ,