Students' awareness and use of electronic information resources: a study of Koforidua Technical University

Abstract

This study assessed issues affecting awareness and use of electronic information resources by first year (level 100) students. The study adopted survey approach. The sampling method adopted for the purpose of this study was simple random sampling techniques. The sampled respondents were drawn from the total population of 1,780 level 100 students at the Koforidua Technical University, Electronic Resource Library. 10% of the population was drawn as the sample size. A structured questionnaire was developed and administered to elicit information from the respondents. A total of 178 copies of the questionnaire were strictly administered to the students with all duly answered and retrieved. Data collected were analysed using simple descriptive statistics. The study revealed that students' awareness about the availability of academic electronic resources and databases was very low and that students primarily used search engines particularly Google and Yahoo as search tools. The study also revealed constraints that negatively affect students' successful utilisation of e-resources. The result also showed that students' utilisation of the electronic information resources was low. Based on the findings, the study proposes different strategies that should be put in place by stakeholders to address the challenges affecting students' utilisation of electronic information resources.