Discovery and use of electronic information resources by higher education students during the COVID19 pandemic

Abstract

Discovery (locating) and use of information resources in academic community (in general) are two essential activities supporting teaching and research. Recent generations of university students are commonly focused on e-resources which offer them easy access to up-to-date data and information in various research areas. However, not all e-resources are of the same quality or easily usable in the higher education environment and therefore research user studies should be caried out to get insight into perception of students about discovery and use of e-resources. The research study of students carried out at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia in December 2021 showed frequent use of selected types of scientific and professional e-resources. E-resources are accessed mostly by mobile devices suggesting their ability of use of e-resources at different locations. The problem arose with trust in librarians when locating e-resources, however, librarians were chosen for recommending e-resources. In this research study, students identified most important advantages of e-resources that server as selection criteria for e-resources for studying. The findings confirmed students’ high confidence in value of e-resources for studying. Finally, the findings confirmed that the COVID19 pandemic influenced students to use e-resources more frequently than before.