Library and Learning Resource Centre offers physical and online services to all its students . The physical library at the branch is a storehouse of valuable academic resources that contributes to the overall enhancement of the teaching and learning systems. It offers a quiet and attractive area for studying, reading and researching practices, through its new modernized landscape . There are two libraries on campus – one for females and one for male students – that accommodates over 8500 books and 100 journals from different disciplines: commerce, literature and general studies. The library is open to students, staff and academicians during the normal study days from 8 am - 8pm, and on Saturdays from 9 am to 3 pm. The library also extends its services off campus through an efficient borrowing system. This process is controlled through the use of a barcoding technology that links the library resources to the koha integrated library system. This therefore, makes it easy to locate books from the shelves. To combat theft, the library premises are protected by the use of RFID security system. As for the physical arrangements of the library, the new enhancements included Lounge seating to allow for social interactions , New tables and chairs to provide more seating to faculty and students, More study carrels to accommodate more students, desktop computers located throughout the library for student use, Collaborative ample writing spaces to allow for collaborative work and more .
The hybrid learning system of the university ( e-library) calls for physical and digital support provisions to both students and tutors. At AOU, this is embraced through its e-library subscription services that provides a gateway to hundreds of top rated journals and articles from famous databases. Students and tutors can easily access these materials through a special e-library portal via their LMS accounts, so they can do so from anytime at anywhere. Also, the Kuwait branch, in cooperation with KFAS, has set up a lab dedicated solely for e-library navigation. Technical support is provided through lab assistants devoted to helping students/tutors access and search through the different databases. To heighten utilization of e-library resources, the university encourages students to cite a minimum of three different resources when solving their TMAs. The library usage rate (both physical and digital) is periodically measured and involves generating a report on the number of books issued and access to e-library databases which are :
Al Manhal
Edusearch
Springer
JSTOR
Ebesco
ProQuest