Status of ancillary services in the children section of public libraries and its relationship with loyalty of children aged 7-11 years

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the status of ancillary services in the children’s department of public libraries in Khuzestan province, and in this regard, the sub-objectives of the research are as follows: identification of the ancillary services of the children’s department, investigating the status of providing ancillary services, investigating the level of satisfaction of the members of the children’s department, and investigating the relationship between satisfaction with the ancillary services provided and the loyalty of the members of the children’s section of the public libraries of Khuzestan province.

The research method is of mixed type (qualitative and quantitative) and has a combined mode. In the qualitative part of the research, by referring to the public libraries of Khuzestan province and reviewing the regulations, a checklist including ancillary services for children has been presented. Then in the quantitative part of the research, using the customer loyalty evaluation questionnaire (Moghimi and Ramadan, 2010, Moon Q and Lawrence, 2001), the studied variables were measured, and the research questions were answered using quantitative methods. The statistical population of this research includes all the 7-11-year-old members of public libraries in Khuzestan province in 2019, out of which 380 people were determined as the statistical sample of the research population by the cluster sampling method. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that according to the checklist of the research, 27 secondary services should be implemented in the public libraries of the province, and among the services listed in this list, three services are not being implemented, which are: providing services to special groups, holding national and religious festivals, and inviting actors and artists to the libraries. In the field of descriptive information about the knowledge of the library’s ancillary services, only 32% of the respondents were aware of the library’s ancillary services. Furthermore, regarding the purpose of participating or using library services, it was found that 33% of the respondents used these services for the purpose of entertainment and 23% for the purpose of academic progress. Moreover, 16% of the respondents used these services with the purpose of getting used to extracurricular studies, 15% with the purpose of participating in group work and socialization, and 12% for the purpose of personal development. The most important services implemented in the children’s section of the libraries, which were at the top of the list, are sending resources in absentia with an average of 3/69, book exhibitions with an average of 3/67, providing educational and cultural brochures with an average of 3.55, a list of new books for teenagers with an average of 3/52, introducing books and Storytelling with an average of 3/47, joint cultural programs with schools with an average of 3/36, inter-library loan with an average of 3/38, educational assistance classes with an average of 3/31, poetry reading and criticism sessions with an average of 3/24, and allocating space for holding private classes with an average of 3/29.

Originality/value:

 It was found that the level of satisfaction of 7-11-year-old members of public libraries in Khuzestan province with the ancillary services provided in these libraries is in a favorable state and there is a significant correlation between the satisfaction of these children and all dimensions of loyalty examined in this research.