Business administration students' perception of usability of the Business Source Premier database

Abstract

PurposeThe current article is a research study examining user perception of the usability of an online information system used by business administration students. The online database which it aims to examine is Business Source Premier, which is incorporated in a larger platform of databases called EBSCO. The findings of this research will help with the efficient management of this information service as well as improve the application of this database in an academic library setting.Design/methodology/approachConvenience sampling procedure was used for recruiting participants. The entire class of 22 students taught at Medgar Evers College of CUNY participated in this survey. Users evaluated this database using Oulanov's usability tool, which entails the following eight criteria: Affect, Adaptability, Control, Helpfulness, Efficiency, User Effort, Measures of Effectiveness, and Retrieval Features.FindingsBusiness Source Premier was rated highest in terms of efficiency. Some improvement might be necessary to increase the helpfulness of the system. User effort is another usability criterion that scored lower than the others. Other usability components, including affect, adaptability, control, measures of effectiveness, and retrieval features, were rated highly. The overall performance of Business Source Premier is high and possible paths for improvement are likewise offered.Originality/valueThis case study provided usability assessment of an online business information system used by business administration students, identifying its strong and weak points. This investigation showed that Business Source Premier is efficient and effective tool for conducting research in the field of business administration.