A Comparative Analysis of the Information Resource Usage of the Agriculture Students

P Wijetunge

doi:10.4038/jula.v19i1.7873

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the differences in information resource usage among the agriculture students in University of Peradeniya, so that remedial measured could be adopted to address the identified trends. A 10% sample was surveyed and the data were complimented by the information provided by published literature, statistics, faculty members and the library staff. Findings established that the Search Engines, Wikipedia, Classmates, Lecturers and Recommended Readings are used often by all but there is a variation in the usage across the academic years. Use of Recommended Readings, Library Collection, and Lecturers increased across the academic years while the use of their Personal Collections of material, and the use of Classmates, Friends and Family and the Librarians as an information resource decreased. There was no difference in the use of Search Engines across the years but the use of Wikipedia, and Government Websites decreased in the fourth year. The study proved that the students expect training from the library, and that there is a variation across the academic years in the topics they would like to learn about. The study recommends a well-planned information literacy programme for all the students of the faculty irrespective of their year of study. A limitation of the study was that it covered only what and how often aspects of the information resource usage but not why, due to time limitation, but elucidated the why of findings in the light of previous research. However, this paper is the first of its kind, which makes a comparative analysis of the information resource usage of the agriculture undergraduates in Sri Lanka.Journal of the University Librarians’Association of Sri Lanka, Vol. 19, Issue 1, October 2015, Page 6-31

Highlights

The Faculty of Agriculture of University of Peradeniya, established as an independent faculty in 1972, has eight academic departments and offers three degree programs of four-year duration; B.Sc. in Agricultural Technology &Management, B.Sc. in Food Science & Technology and B.Sc. in Animal Science & Fisheries
Section one presents some of the key research studies which identified the information resource usage trends of the undergraduates in the global context followed by a section on such studies in the Sri Lankan context
The study ascertained that, of the Printed Resources, there is an increase in the use of Recommended Readings and Library Collection, but a decrease in the use of Personal collection across the academic years

Summary

Introduction

The Faculty of Agriculture of University of Peradeniya, established as an independent faculty in 1972, has eight academic departments and offers three degree programs of four-year duration; B.Sc. in Agricultural Technology &Management, B.Sc. in Food Science & Technology and B.Sc. in Animal Science & Fisheries. This paper pays a special attention to the information resource usage of the undergraduates of the Faculty of Agriculture. The survey of literature covered the period of 2000-2014 and the literature published before 2000 were not considered as the types of information resource accessible to the undergraduates could have changed significantly 14 years before. Section one presents some of the key research studies which identified the information resource usage trends of the undergraduates in the global context followed by a section on such studies in the Sri Lankan context. Section two is devoted to the information resource usage trends of the agriculture undergraduates in the global and Sri Lankan contexts. Section three presents a selection of studies which compares the information resources usage across different academic years, and Section four provides several studies which attempted to explain the factors affecting the use of information resources by the undergraduates

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion