Library automation practices in engineering college libraries of Visvesvaraya Technological University: an empirical study

The research study examines the status, adoption levels, and librarian satisfaction with library automation in engineering college libraries at Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Karnataka, India.Objectives To investigate the profile of VTU librarians, to know the name of the library management software in VTU, to determine the working software modules in VTU libraries, to know the reasons for adoption of library automation software and to find out the satisfaction regarding library automation in VTU.Methodology Data was collected using a mixed-methods research design: a structured online Google form questionnaire was used to collect data, which was then statistically analyzed using SPSS. 171 college librarians participated.Results and findings the findings of the research study shows the bulk of respondents (75.4%) were men, and 38.7% had experience. The more number of responses (64.9%) were college librarians, with chief librarians coming in second (31.6%). Koha was the most popular open source integrated library management system (47.3%), followed by EasyLib and Lib-Manager. The most popular modules were Circulation (mean = 4.15), OPAC (mean = 4.11), and Cataloguing (mean = 4.06).Conclusion The respondents were very supportive of using automation to improve efficiency, service speed, access, and user pleasure. However, overall satisfaction with the product ranged from moderate to low in terms of user experience, workload efficiency, sophisticated capabilities like AI-powered indexing, and so on. Library automation has successfully penetrated VTU-associated institutions; however, continued integration of developing technologies, infrastructural support, and focused staff training is required to fully realize the potential of library automation.