Assessment of user preference to information resources in agricultural libraries in north India

Through a survey, this study assesses the preference of users with regard to print and electronic information resources in agricultural libraries of north India and to identify the preferred mode of access thereof. The required data were collected, employing questionnaires and through telephonic surveys. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for analysing the data. The level of association between the user preference and the corresponding variable was derived throughChi Squared (χ2) Test. It is found that the users of agricultural libraries in north India use information resources almost equally both in print and electronic forms, although online resources are favored over print as they are ‘easy to search and retrieve’, ‘easy and quick to access’ and ‘more up-to-date’ than their print counterparts

Use of Electronic Resources by Law Academics in India

This study investigated e-resources use, storage, the preferred format for reading, and difficulties faced while accessing e-resources. Electronic resources are playing a crucial role all over the world, and they are increasing widely in all age groups of the academic community. The main aim of the law academics\u27 role is to know the effective use of electronic resources. For this study, we adopted a descriptive survey research design that was used to collect feedback from the respondents through the survey and Google form. The study samples are Progressive Education Society\u27s Modern Law College affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University. BA LLB students are samples of the study. The study findings reveal that 95.1% of student respondents are aware of e-resources; 75.7% of respondents used college websites for accessing legal electronic resources. The most noticeable is that 95.1% of users prefer reading in Portable Document Format (PDF). Overall, more than 50% of respondents felt e-resources are easy to access, time-saving, and search tools. The findings of this study are helpful to library professionals to subscribe to more e-resources. The research suggests that library professionals have to guide the users to conduct orientation on accessing the e-resources more effectively. Students expected user manuals for accessing some databases and e-resources based on the findings, recommendations were made

ACADEMIC STAFF CONSCIOUSNESS AND CONSUMPTION OF THE ESSENTIAL ELECTRONIC AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY (TEEAL) DATABASE FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, JOSEPH AYO BABALOLA UNIVERSITY, IKEJI-ARAKEJI, NIGERIA

This empirical study investigated the consciousness and consumption of the Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) database for teaching and research in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji – Arakeji, Nigeria. The population of the study consisted of the teaching staff in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Joseph Ayo Babalola University. A survey research method was adopted for the study with the use of structured questionnaire as instrument for data gathering. The questionnaire was administered online through e-mail message to the academic staff of the college. The data collected was analyzed by simple frequency count and percentage. The study showed that majority of the academic staff (88.89%) was conscious of the existence of the database in the library. The study also established that the main purpose of TEEAL consumption was for the enrichment and sustenance of teaching and research, although the consumption rate was relatively low due to some hindrances like electricity power outage, lack of training in the use of TEEAL database, absence of an up- to –date version of the database, difficulty in finding information and computer system failure. The paper therefore recommended improvements in the areas of these identified hindrances

Impact of Availability of E-Resources on User Satisfaction in Agricultural Libraries of Northern India

The main objectives of the study were to assess the level of user satisfaction with regard to the following types of Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) relevant to agriculture and allied disciplines, viz. Indexing and Abstracting (I&A) Databases; e-Journals; e-Books; and e-Theses. Seven universities were surveyed using a questionnaire for collecting data. The investigator used telephonic and e-mail communication and had a face-to-face interaction with respondents to substantiate the responses and remove ambiguities. The level of users’ satisfaction has been measured using a five point Likert scale. A great majority of respondents are satisfied about the availability of e-abstract databases (87.92%) and e-journals (89.67%). Despite the fact that only three of the surveyed libraries are found to subscribe to a single e-book collection of 600 titles, surprisingly a good percentage of the library users (69.08%) are satisfied with the availability of e-books. Same is the case with e-theses, whereof the majority of respondents (60.33%) are satisfied, despite the fact that only one e-theses database that too only of Indian coverage i.e., KrishiPrabha is made available to users

Awareness of Electronic Databases by Academic Staff in Private Universities in South-West Nigeria

Awareness of the databases among academics in institutions of higher learning is important because the ultimate use of the databases is for academics to be aware and utilise them effectively to contribute to academic achievement in academia. Literature identified lack of awareness as the main factors militating against effective use of electronic databases partly due to level of user education, preference, orientations and training. This study therefore, investigated the awareness- perception, level of user education and information literacy.The descriptive survey research design of the correlational type was adopted. A total of 1656 academic staff in the 21 private universities were sampled. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 60% academic staff across the ranks in 21 private universities. The main research instruments used to collect data for the study was questionnaire. Data generated were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Spearman’s rank was used to test hypothesis at 0.05 level of confidence.The result of the analysis showed that there was average level of awareness of electronic databases among academic staff in private universities in South-west, Nigeria. The study recommended libraries/librarians, database producers/ vendors, publishers and private universities ICT units/departments to raise the level of awareness of electronic databases in the private universities in South-west, Nigeria as higher awareness can influence higher utilisation of the electronic databases. Keywords: Research Productivity, Electronic Databases, Private Universities, Academic Staff, Awarenes

Utilization of Electronic Resources by Library Users In Kwara State University, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study investigated utilization of electronic resources by the users in the Kwara State University Library, Nigeria. Cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 3,670 registered users with the library and a sample of 367 was selected using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. 367 copies of the questionnaire were administered while 345 were returned which used for the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for the research questions. The findings showed that all the types of electronic resources listed in the study are available with electronic books having the highest responses. The study found out that there is no significant difference in the extent to which users utilize ERs. The study recommended among others that since electronic books are available in the university library, the University library management should intensify the availability of other types especially CD-ROMs and DVD by supplying mor

Use of Electronic Resources by Law Academics in India

This study investigated e-resources use, storage, the preferred format for reading, and difficulties faced while accessing e-resources. Electronic resources are playing a crucial role all over the world, and they are increasing widely in all age groups of the academic community. The main aim of the law academics' role is to know the effective use of electronic resources. For this study, we adopted a descriptive survey research design that was used to collect feedback from the respondents through the survey and Google form. The study samples are Progressive Education Society's Modern Law College affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University. BA LLB students are samples of the study. The study findings reveal that 95.1% of student respondents are aware of e-resources; 75.7% of respondents used college websites for accessing legal electronic resources. The most noticeable is that 95.1% of users prefer reading in Portable Document Format (PDF). Overall, more than 50% of respondents felt e-resources are easy to access, time-saving, and search tools. The findings of this study are helpful to library professionals to subscribe to more e-resources. The research suggests that library professionals have to guide the users to conduct orientation on accessing the e-resources more effectively. Students expected user manuals for accessing some databases and e-resources based on the findings, recommendations were made

Use of Library and Library Resources in University Libraries of Northern India: A Comparative Study between Research Scholars and Faculty Members

The purpose of the study was to investigate research scholars (RS) and faculty members (FM) involvement in use of library, library resources, purpose behind using them and satisfaction from the resources in five university libraries of Northern India. The representative samples were selected based on sample size given by Krejcie and Morgan (1970). The representative sample was formed by taking 15% of respondents from each category from each university. The ‘Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling Technique’ was used. The data collected was analyzed with the help of statistical software package called SPSS and hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square test. The study was limited to five universities libraries of Northern India. No significant relationship was found in frequency of visit to the library between the research scholars (RS) and faculty members (RM) across the libraries. RS spent more time in their respective libraries as compared to FM and library is the prominent place for reading in the opinion of RS, whereas FM visited their respective libraries for circulation purpose. A significant difference was found between RS and FM about availability of required resources, information sources used by them except non-book materials, whereas a significant relationship was found in opinion of RS and FM satisfaction from the library collection. The findings will help the library authorities to understand the pattern of use of their library, purpose of visit, information sources consulted, reasons for use of print and e-resources and satisfaction from their respective collections between RS and FM

Utilisation of e-resources to support teaching and research in higher learning institutions, Tanzania

This study was conducted to compare the use of electronic information resources in selected universities in Tanzania. The study employed a mixed methods research approach to collecting, processing, analysing data and discussing the resultant findings. In all, 119 academic staff and researchers participated in the study. SPSS and STATA were used to analyse the data. The key findings suggest that the majority of academic staff and researchers were aware of, have access to and utilise e-resources to support teaching and research. On the whole, the study found a significant and positive association between awareness and access, access and use. In fact, most of the e-resources the selected higher learning institutions subscribed to through COTUL were under-utilised. Apart from information literacy skills, personal motivations and e-resource infrastructures, demographic characteristics such as age and education level of academic staff and researchers are predictors in e-resources usage. Furthermore, the challenges and problems that deter the effective utilisation of e-resources were include slow internet connectivity, inability to access full-text articles, unreliable power supply, inaccessibility of e-resources outside university premises due to IP address limitations, inadequate ICT infrastructure and inadequate skills and knowledge. The study found that there was a need to promote the usage of e-resources through web technologies to enhance the quality of teaching and research.Keywords: ICT, e-resources, online databases, teaching, research, higher learning institutions, Tanzani

Availability, Accessibility, and Use of Electronic Information Resources for Research by Students in Francis Sulemanu Idachaba Library University of Agriculture, Makurdi

ABSTRACT: The study investigated availability, accessibility and use of electronic information resources for research by students in Francis Sulemanu Idachaba Library University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. The study looked at the types of electronic information resources available for research by students, extent of availability, accessibility and utilization of the available electronic information resources for research as well as problems encountered by students while accessing and utilizing the available electronic information resources for research by students. Five (5) objectives with corresponding research questions guided the study. The study adopted a survey research design, the population of the study was 7952 registered users (students) of the library. The sample for the study was 381 students registered users of the library who were sampled using simple random sampling technique. Two instruments were used for data collection titled “Checklist on Availability of Electronic Information Resources for Research by Students (CAEIRRS)” and “Accessibility and Utilization of Electronic Information Resources for Research by Students Questionnaire (QUEIRRSQ)” which was validated by two experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.765 was obtained. Data was collected and analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentages and means to answer the research questions. Findings of the study revealed that, e-journals, e-newspapers, Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), CD-Rom database, e-magazines, e-books, online database, e-research reports, virtual library online, science direct online and Ebscohost reference databases were the types of electronic information resources available for research by students in Francis Sulemanu Idachaba Library. Findings also revealed that, electronic information resources mentioned above were available for research by students to a great extent. Also, it is revealed from the findings that, the extent of accessibility and utilization of the availability electronic information resources for research by students is great. Findings further revealed that, inadequate computers in the library, poor internet connectivity limited subscribed titles, power outages, difficulty to access and use, lack of relevant e-resources in various disciplines as well as no assistance from the library, were the problems encountered by students while accessing and using electronic information resources for research in Francis Sulemanu Idachaba Library University of Agriculture, Makurdi. It was recommended that the University administrators and library management should improve on the bandwidth and enhance the internet connectivity so as to enable the students have easy access to online e-resources. Also, trained personnel should be on ground to assist the students in the use of the available e-resources in the University library and appropriate user education should be organized for students for better use of e-resources in Francis Sulemanu Idachaba Library, university of Agriculture, Makurdi