Title: The contribution of the distance library of the Hellenic Open University to adult education

Authors: Vasiliki Brinia; Alexandra Karpeta; Maria Antonia Papachiou

Addresses: Teachers Education Program, Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patission Street, 104-34 Athens, Greece ' Hellenic Open University, Parodos Aristotelous 18, Patras 26335, Greece ' Teachers Education Program, Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patission Street, 104-34 Athens, Greece

Abstract: Libraries in the context of open and distance education and adult education can make a vital contribution to the overall educational process of trainees providing services based on their users' needs. This paper investigates the contribution of the services offered to postgraduate students in the Education Sciences and Adult Education programs of the School of Humanities - Hellenic Open University (HOU) by their library. Our basic methodological approach consists of 214 postgraduate students, using the quantitative method and a questionnaire with closed questions. Based on our analysis, postgraduate students are mostly aware of the services offered by the HOU's library, however, they do not use them often. Moreover, despite the crucial role of HOU's distance library, our research showed that students are not satisfied with the services provided. As this study is the first in the last ten years to investigate the discussed subject, it provides the university administration a valuable lesson to improve the quality of the library tools.

Keywords: Hellenic Open University; HOU; open and distance education; adult education; academic library; library services; user satisfaction; library contribution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHES.2021.120956

International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability, 2021 Vol.3 No.4, pp.317 - 336

Received: 31 Dec 2020
Accepted: 29 Apr 2021
Published online: 18 Feb 2022 *

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