The importance of user satisfaction in terms of university libraries providing night services in Turkey: a study on Istanbul Technical University Mustafa Inan Library

In accordance with today's needs, libraries have started to move beyond being referred to as places that only has book collections. Since the library and information centers became centers for living, the duration of their use and the variety of services they provided increased. The increase of the number of students in the universities increased the use of libraries. In line with the mission of increasing the quality level, university administrations create new services or make changes on the existing service by considering the demands of their users. As an example: İTÜ's students, academic and administrative staff have requested to use the İTÜ Mustafa Inan Library also out of working hours. Especially, the students' intention to use the library as an area of study during the examination periods has become a necessity to keep the libraries open outside of working hours (after 17:30). Since the date of 14 February 2011, the first university library which started to provide 7/24 library service with the exception of public holidays and special cases, is the Mustafa Inan Library of Istanbul Technical University. In this context, 7/24 open university library service created awareness as a pioneering and initiative step, and quickly became a role model for other universities. The aim of this study is to determine the importance of the use of 7/24 service university libraries in Turkey in terms of user satisfaction, and to analyze ''İTÜ Mustafa Inan Library'' example as the first 7/24 open library. In accordance with this purpose, the research methods of the study consist of documentary analysis method and questionnaire technique. The hypothesis of the study is determined as "İTÜ Mustafa Inan Library's 7/24 service, increases the users's library usage and satisfaction". In order to test the accuracy of the study hypothesis, general history of university libraries was explained. The aims, functions and basic elements of university libraries are examined. Library services in university libraries; has been examined under the headings 'technical services', 'user services' and 'technological services'. In the second chapter: under the main heading of 'Examining user satisfaction in terms of making the night service of university libraries in Turkey' the following topics: 'development of library services in accordance with user needs', '7/24 service concept' and 'What are the requirements of the 7/24 library service?' have been studied. Brief information about the historical development and library building of İTÜ Mustafa İnan Library was given. 'İTÜ Mustafa Inan Library' example that has the characteristic of being the first in this 7/24 service: has been reviewed under the headings 'staff', 'security', 'building', 'transportation', 'collection', 'user' and 'budget'. At the end of the second part: '7/24 library services in university libraries in Turkey' were examined. In the third and last chapter, 'The importance of 7/24 library service for ITU Mustafa İnan Library users'; are studied by conducting a questionnaire to Library users and they were asked to test their satisfaction. The findings provided from the questionnaire proved the accuracy of our hypothesis.