Investigation On The Information Service For International Students By Chinese University Libraries

This thesis investigates the information services provided by libraries at Chinese higher education institutions for international students and scholars. The composition of the international students and scholars, their special information needs, and the obstacles they face in utilizing library information services are analyzed. Pertinent approaches and specific methods are proposed based on these analyses and the study of the reality and existing issues at university libraries in China. This research is intended to help provide reference value to university library information services, and develop the libraries into platforms contributing to the universities' internationalization and promoting scientific and cultural exchange between countries.The thesis consists six parts as following:PartⅠ: Introduction. The background and motivation of this research is elaborated. The aim of this research, the issues studied, and the approaches taken are introduced.PartⅡ: Review of the researches on information services for international students. The status and the development of theoretical studies on information services and customer research are reviewed. The research approaches and the existing problems with their corresponding strategies and suggestions are summarized. The study presented in this part provides theoretical and practical backgrounds for this research.PartⅢ: Investigation on the information and information services needs of international students in China. Surveys based on both questionnaires and face-to-face interviews are used to study the international students in China. Based on the results, the information and information service needs, and the obstacles they have in using the library information services are analyzed.PartⅣ: Existing problems in information services at Chinese university libraries for international students. These problems include the perspectives of information service, the service quality, qualifications of service providers and the build-up of information resources.PartⅤ: Approaches to the improvement of library information services for international students. The principles guiding the information services are elaborated. Specific implementations are proposed to enhance the services. Finally, the management methods for university libraries are suggested. PartⅥ: Conclusions and future work. The contributions and innovations in this thesis are summarized and discussed, with suggestions for future work in this area.