Community Information Need and Barriers in Accessing Community Information: A Case Study of District Central Library, Kodagu

The study was taken up to gain better understanding of community information need and problems in accessing the relevant information by the users of District Public Library, Kodagu.In the context of development of the society there is every need to consider the public library as an agency which emphasizes the development of various groups of the community by providing relevant information . There is a need to re engineer the public library services ,as it is closely linked with the community. Public libraries corollary to the people’s university should bring an awakening about “Information for all” but the situation in the public library in Kodagu is not encouraging to considered it as a community information centre. The main reason is fund crunch ,which affects the public libraries in their proper development . In the changing network environment public libraries are not able to play their special role in the cultural, educational ,social process, as their position is not protected. Application of Information and communication technology ( ICT) in public libraries are still in the infant stage which hinders the provision of proper information services to the community people. The public library should assess and recognize the users information need and should find the best mean to disseminate meaningful information for the sustainable development of the community. This paper examines the barriers in accessing community information by the users of District Public Library, Kodagu.