Rural library services II: An empirical assessment of information provision in rural communities in northern districts of Bangladesh

This is the second article focusing on rural library services in Bangladesh. The main aim of this paper is to empirically measure the performance and impact of rural library activities in northern districts of Bangladesh.

The study was carried out separately in ten rural communities with library facilities. Background data about library collections were collected. Point‐of‐exit interviews with library users were carried out to gather their opinion on library collections, performance and impact.

The point‐of‐exit interview highlights the users' demographic characteristics, their library use and information needs, and their opinion on library collections, performance and impact. The constraints faced by users in using these libraries are also identified. The results show that most users are generally satisfied with the performance and impact of these libraries.

This paper is the first attempt to measure empirically the performance and impact of rural library activities in Bangladesh. The authors expect more research on impact assessment of rural library activities in other developing countries.