Use of e-resources in the University Libraries of northern India: A comparative study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the awareness and examine the use of electronic resources by the research scholars and faculty members of selected five university libraries in Northern India. The study aimed to determine frequency of use, purpose of access of resources and their satisfaction from the existing e-resources subscribed by their respective libraries. The survey was conducted to find out the use of e-resources in the selected university libraries of Northern India. The respondents included research scholars and faculty members (n=465) from all disciplines (i.e., Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities) in five academic libraries. The representative samples were selected based on sample size given by Krejcie and Morgan (1970). The representative sample was formed by taking 15% of respondents from each category within each university. The 'Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling Technique ’was used and the hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square test. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents (i.e., research scholars and faculty members) across the libraries were aware about the e-resources being subscribed by their respective libraries. Faculty members used maximum e-resources in comparison to the research scholars across the libraries. 58% respondents found contents of e-resources qualitative, 53% respondents found them easy to access, 54% respondents believed that required information is always available. A non-significant difference (X2= 3.190, df=4, p-value=0.527) was found in satisfaction level from the electronic collection between research scholars and faculty members across the libraries. The findings of this study will help the library authorities understand the usage of e-resources subscribed by their respective libraries between the research scholars and faculty members to promote their usage by giving training in the use of such resources.