The Comparison of Offline and Online Volunteering Activities among Students with an Emphasis on Libraries

Voluntary activities play an important role in the development of organizational programs as well as the development of communities. One of the groups that can have an effective presence in volunteering activities are students. The purpose of this research is to investigate and compare the willingness of students to do online and offline voluntary activities, especially for libraries.

The current research is of an applied type carried out using a survey method. The statistical population of the research was the students of Semnan University. The samples were selected using random sampling method. Finally, 267 people, about 75% of the sample members, cooperated with the research. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect research data, and its validity and reliability were also confirmed. The questionnaire, made up of 42 items, measures the degree of students' willingness to do online and offline volunteering activities, as well as their willingness to do online and offline volunteering activities, especially for libraries.

Students had an average desire to do volunteering activities, and the average desire to do online volunteer activities was higher than offline volunteer activities. Among the types of voluntary activities, students are more willing to do social and civil activities, cultural activities and educational activities, and the least desire was related to care activities and relief activities. The study of students' willingness to do volunteering activities for libraries also showed that students' willingness to do offline volunteer activities for libraries is more than online volunteer activities. Among the types of libraries, students prioritize volunteering for public, university, and rural libraries more than other libraries. Also, the study of the relationship between demographic variables and the tendency to do voluntary activities also indicated the existence of a significant relationship between the variables of gender, marital status, occupational status, and educational field with online and offline volunteering activities. Women are more likely to be volunteer than men, and single people are more likely to be volunteer than married people. Results also indicated that there is no significant relationship between the level of willingness to do voluntary activities and the level of education of students. Examining the relationship between students' fields of study and the desire to do volunteering activities also showed the significant difference between doing volunteering activities according to the field of study. Technical and engineering fields tend to do online voluntary activities, and art, humanities, and social sciences groups tend to offline voluntary activities. In general, the fields of humanities and social sciences, natural resources and animal husbandry, and art had the greatest desire to do voluntary activities. It seems that the nature of the disciplines has an effect on people's willingness to play role as volunteer.

Students have a high potential to do voluntary activities. Organizations, especially libraries, can use it to promote their programs. The design and planning of voluntary activities for students should be in accordance with their interests, expertise and skills, and in accordance with the type of activities, virtual space should be used.