Summary: | Information needs is not a new term in the library field. Librarians need to identify the needs
of their users in order to have a versatile and effective library collection and library services.
There’s a lot of benefit in studying the information needs of a certain category of users,
especially users with disabilities who are using the facilities and services at the University of
Malaya Library (UML). There are few categories of students with disabilities at the
University of Malaya (UM), however this research is focusing on visually impaired persons
due to the huge number registered as students in UM with total of 48 students. Persons with
disabilities have a special range and spectrum of information needs as a result of their
limitations. Therefore, there are multitude of factors to consider, such as accessibility of the
library services and library facilities, in order to achieve an equal opportunity in accessing
information at the library. The role of the library changes as librarians need to be more
sensitive and need to conduct more research on how to deal with the needs of the impaired
users. The result of the survey will be a guideline for UML to improve the library services
provided for this particular user group. As a conclusion, it is important to ensure that UML
can provide special library services concerning this specific user group, thus ensuring “a
library for everyone”
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