Provision and Awareness of Digital Library Resources in a Multi-Mode University: Perspectives of Distance Learners and Librarians.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the extent to which digital library provision affects awareness and use of digital contents, digital reference services, and information literacy among stakeholders in distance education at a large multi-mode public teacher education university in Ghana. The study makes use of the concurrent mixed-method design. The population of the study was 1,834 distance students with a sample size of 641 distance learners reading programmes in Basic Education in three distance education Centres of the University of Education, Winneba namely Winneba (247), Kumasi (276) and Asante-Mampong (118). A total of 453 (70.67 percent) distance learners, selected randomly, completed a 31-item questionnaire. Also, the population consisted of four librarians from three Campuses in the vicinity of the Centres. A combination of probability and non-probability sampling methods were used for this study. The study found that awareness and use of digital library resources in the three distance education Centres were very low, if not non-existent. The findings revealed that for all the three main classes of digital library resources and services; digital contents, digital reference services and educative services, provision was very poor or non-existent for the distance learning community. This negatively impacted awareness and use of these resources. Among others, the study recommends a regular collaborative needs assessment of distance learners; establishment of dedicated library services for distance education; and the development of embedded library services which can appreciably raise the visibility of digital library resources in distance education. Keywords: Digital library provision; distance learning community; awareness; multi-mode; academic libraries in Ghana.