Use Of Electronic Information Resources Research Articles

An Assessment of the Use of Electronic Information Resources and Facilities by Engineering Scholars in Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to assess the use of electronic information resources and facilities among Engineering Scholars in Private Universities in Nigeria using Bells University of Technology, Ota, Nigeria as a Case Study. Scientific investigation involves careful and proper adoption of research design, use of standardized tools and texts in identifying adequate sample techniques for data analysis. In this survey a questionnaire was adapted, tested and employed to collect primary data of academics from Mechanical, Mechatronics, Biomedical, Telecommunications, Electrical-electronics and Computer engineering Departments of Bells University of Technology, Ota Ogun State, Nigeria. In all, a total of forty-two faculty members, associate and research staff participated from the college of Engineering. The questionnaires were distributed among forty-two faculty members from the six departments of the college of engineering, out of which 40 were returned and found to be valid, making a response rate 95.23%. Among the 40 respondents, 2 faculties do not use electronic information resources. Thus, response rate is reduced to 38 (95.00%). In addition individual interview and observation methods were also used to collect the required information. The results correspond with previous studies conducted in other countries. The Engineers still stick to the printed information sources, but they pay good attention to electronic resources. Most of them have access to computer and internet at the office and home. They are regular users of a variety of electronic technologies. Although faced with some challenges. Thus, the applied scientists perceive that modern technology made their work easier. The study focused only on the engineering faculty in the first private university of technology in Nigeria. The survey could be replicated among other faculties such as humanities and or in other private universities in Nigeria and on a larger sample for generalization. Keeping in view the positive trend of engineering towards modern technology, universities and libraries should be adequately funded to provide electronic resources and facilities in the science and applied science discipline. Special training programmes for engineering scholars should also be organized. This is the first study on this topic in a private university of technology in Nigeria. The results can also be used to design services and facilities in academic libraries and information centers in private universities and universities of technology in Nigeria and in other developing countries.

Teaching a difficult topic using a problem-based concept resembling a computer game: development and evaluation of an e-learning application for medical molecular genetics

BackgroundGenetic testing rapidly penetrates into all medical specialties and medical students must acquire skills in this area. However, many of them consider it difficult. Furthermore, many find these topics less appealing and not connected to their future specialization in different fields of clinical medicine. Student-centred strategies such as problem-based learning, gamification and the use of real data can increase the appeal of a difficult topic such as genetic testing, a field at the crossroads of genetics, molecular biology and bioinformatics.MethodsWe designed an electronic teaching application which students registered in the undergraduate Medical Biology course can access online. A study was carried out to assess the influence of implementation of the new method. We performed pretest/posttest evaluation and analyzed the results using the sign test with median values. We also collected students’ personal comments.ResultsThe newly developed interactive application simulates the process of molecular genetic diagnostics of a hereditary disorder in a family. Thirteen tasks guide students through clinical and laboratory steps needed to reach the final diagnosis. Genetics and genomics are fields strongly dependent on electronic databases and computer-based data analysis tools. The tasks employ publicly available internet bioinformatic resources used routinely in medical genetics departments worldwide. Authenticity is assured by the use of modified and de-identified clinical and laboratory data from real families analyzed in our previous research projects. Each task contains links to databases and data processing tools needed to solve the task, and an answer box. If the entered answer is correct, the system allows the user to proceed to the next task. The solving of consecutive tasks arranged into a single narrative resembles a computer game, making the concept appealing. There was a statistically significant improvement of knowledge and skills after the practical class, and most comments on the application were positive. A demo version is available at https://medbio.lf2.cuni.cz/demo_m/. Full version is available on request from the authors.ConclusionsOur concept proved to be appealing to the students and effective in teaching medical molecular genetics. It can be modified for training in the use of electronic information resources in other medical specialties.

Use of Electronic Information Resources at Mekelle University, Ethiopia

The present research work describes the use of the electronic resources by the teaching community at Mekelle University, Ethiopia. The survey was conducted by using questionnaires to collect the data. The questionnaires were administered to a total of 1,516 on-duty teaching faculty of seven colleges. This is including the College of Natural and Computational Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the College of Health Science, the College of Law and Governance, the College of Business and Economics, the College of Language and Social Sciences, the College of Dry Land Agriculture and Natural Resources as well as nine regular institutes including: the Ethiopian Institute of Technology, Mekelle Institute of Technology, the Institute of Paleo Environment and Heritage Conservation, the Institute of Pedagogical Sciences, the Institute of Geo-Information and Earth Observation Sciences, the Institute of Environment and Gender Development Studies, the Institute of Population Studies, the Institute for Climate and Society, and the Institute for Water and Environment at Mekelle University. The survey also examines the purpose of use, frequency, difficulties, and availability of electronic information resources subscribed by Mekelle University Digital Library. Finally, the data has been interpreted, concluded and suggestions have been given for the improvement of electronic information resources at the library web portal.

Access and Use of Electronic Information Resources Among Medical Students in University of Port Harcourt Library

This paper investigated access and use of electronic information resources among medical students in University of Port Harcourt Library. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. Questionnaire was used as instruments for data collection. The population of the study was made up of all the medical students in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, totaling five hundred and forty two (542), and one hundred and eight(108) were selected as sample and used for the study, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data collected. The null hypotheses formulated was rejected suggesting that there is significant relationship between Access and Use of Electronic Information Resources among medical students in University of Port Harcourt. The study revealed that most of the medical students lack the ability to access and use these electronic information resources. The study recommends trainings and orientation for students on the use and access of relevant electronic information resources which will boost their retrieval skills. Keywords : access, information, resources, electronic, utilization DOI : 10.7176/IKM/9-4-08 Publication date : April 30 th 2019

Awareness and Use of Electronic Information Resources in Polytechnic Library Zungeru, Niger State, Nigeria.

The study investigated the awareness and use of electronic information resources in the Polytechnic library Zungeru, Niger State, Nigeria. The study was anchored on four objectives and one hypothesis. Survey research design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 1,373 full time National Diploma (ND) II and High National Diploma (HND) II students and a sample size of 301 respondents was adopted through random sampling technique. Structured and four rating scale questionnaire and observation check-list were used as data collection instruments. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that e-books, e-journals, CD-ROM data bases and online e-resources databases were the available electronic information resources in the Polytechnic library Zungeru. The level of awareness of electronic information resources was low, while the mean frequency use of library electronic information resources was on monthly basis. Some of the challenges encountered in the use of electronic information resources include: inadequate awareness of the electronic information resources, irregular power supply and inadequate Internet facilities in the library. The study recommended that electronic information resources such as electronic theses/dissertations should be acquired and made available to students; the library management should use education program to sensitise students more on the availability and usefulness of the electronic information resources to their studies. The library management should also ensure that acquisition policy is tailored towards users‟ information needs.

Antecedents of the use of Electronic Information Resources by Lawyers in selected law firms in Lagos State, Nigeria

The study examined the influence of gender, age, ICT competence and awareness of Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) on the use of EIRs in legal research by lawyers in Lagos State, Nigeria. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 226 lawyers from a population of 377. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analysed with frequency and percentage distribution, correlation and multiple regression. Findings showed that the majority (>70%) were aware of most of the listed legal EIRs and also utilized them. However, not all could rate themselves highly competent at using ICTs for some of the listed tasks. Awareness and use of information resources had a significant, positive relationship (r = .82, p < .05). ICT competence (β = .63, t = 6.51, p < .05) and age (β = -6.01, t = -3.28, p < .05) significantly influenced the use of EIRs while gender did not (β = -6.78, t = -3.72, p > .05). The study recommends that the law firms should ensure continuous training in the use of ICTs and law librarians should find innovative ways of keeping lawyers abreast of new EIRs.Keywords: Electronic Information Resources (EIRs), Lawyers, Awareness of EIRs, ICT competence.

Use of Electronic Information Resources among the Faculty Members of K. Ramakrishnan College of Engineering, Trichy District, Tamil Nadu: A Study

E-Resources or “electronic resources” can be defined as the resources available on the internet which are a godown of data and information on different subjects and topics. The e-Resources are available in universities/colleges. The study aimed at finding the use of e-Resources among the faculties of K. Ramakrishnan College of Engineering at Trichy with distribution to their gender. Majority of the respondents use e-Resources for teaching purpose and for research work. But they do not get any training from College library; they learn to use e- Resources either by self instructions or with guidance from colleagues and friends. The e-Resources can be accessed by the respondents at different places such as College and at home. The study therefore, recommends that efforts to improve the use of e- resources in the Library should include ways of creating user awareness, training/workshops for users and staff, and responding to the challenges confronting utilization.

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

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.

Awareness and Use of CeRA Among Faculties and Research Scholars at the College of Agriculture, Hassan: A Study

Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) was initiated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. It was focused on researching the methodical literature in the National Agricultural Research System. The consortium grants access to numerous research works, articles and journals. It contains over 3000 journals in the various sections of agricultural sciences. Around 194 journals are related to farm animal's management, animal husbandry and poultry sciences. These journals contain details about animal nourishment, foodstuff, dietary additives, and so on, along with fisheries, horticulture, dairy farms, veterinary discipline, sericulture, aquaculture, among many. This paper attempts to study the awareness and use of electronic information resources (CeRA) available in the College of Agriculture, Hassan, Karnataka by the faculty and research scholars.

A Study on use of Electronic Information Resources by the users of Government and Private Medical College Libraries in Andhra Pradesh

A Study on use of Electronic Information Resources by the users of Government and Private Medical College Libraries in Andhra Pradesh

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

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

Use of Electronic Information Resources in Medical and Allied Colleges of Goa State: An Analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to know the preference of electronic resources, to find out the need and satisfaction of electronic information, and to identify the respondents’ opinion about IT skills and co-operation of library staff. Methodology: Survey method adopted for the present study. A structured questionnaire was designed keeping in view of the objectives in mind and distributed to the students and faculty members and collected the required primary data from medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy, homoeopathic and Ayurveda colleges in the state Goa. Collected data were analyzed using statistical tools. Findings: It is clear from the study that, about 19 per cent of the respondents prefer online database where the percentage of faculties is around 39 per cent and that of students is around 47 per cent. All these reveal that e-journals, e-books and DVD/ CD ROM database are the most preferred electronic resources. Majority of the respondents account for about 63 per cent are fully satisfied with e-journals, e-books and e-database. In the study area maximum per cent of respondents who used electronic journals published by Science Direct, Oxford University Press, Medknow and Elsevier Science range from 22.9 to 26.6 that is about one-fourth of the total respondents.

Use of Electronic Information Resources by Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu: A Study

Electronic Resources is one of the emerging environment in libraries & Information communication in the competitive service. E-Resources usually consist of e-books, e-Journals, articles, newspaper, thesis, dissertation, databases and CD-ROMs, which are likely to be the alternative to the print media. Emerald, Ebsco, Scopus are some of the examples of online databases. All updated information is published in these e-resources. The familiarity and use of electronic information resources in the libraries for rapid development is necessary and important. The aim of this study is to identify how electronic information resources are utilized by Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology – [TPGIT] library users and specific trends that can be seen among faculties and students. Further the study also examine the use pattern, acceptance, perceived importance and satisfaction on electronic resources over print resources. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed among the random sample of faculty members and students of selected disciplines of TPGIT College. Out of 300 questionnaires, a total of 236 questionnaires were collected.

Using electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems at different stages of acquisition of the translator’s cultural competence.Design/methodology/approachA process and product-oriented, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental study was conducted with 38 students with German as a second foreign language from the four years of the Bachelor’s degree in Translation and Interpreting at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and ten professional translators.FindingsTranslation students use a wider variety of resources, perform more queries and spend more time on queries than translators when solving cultural translation problems. The students’ information-seeking process is generally less efficient than that of the translators. Training has little impact on the students’ use of electronic information resources for this specific purpose, since all students use them similarly regardless of the year they are in.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has been conducted with a small sample and only one language pair from a single pedagogical context. The tendencies observed cannot be generalised to the whole population of translation students.Practical implicationsThis paper has implications for translator training, as it encourages the development of efficient information-seeking processes for the resolution of cultural translation problems.Originality/valueUnlike other studies, this paper focusses on a specific translation problem type. It provides information related to the students’ information-seeking strategies for the resolution of cultural translation problems, which can be useful for translation training.

Use of Electronic Information Resources for Postgraduates Students of Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: A Survey

This research study aims to investigate the usage of electronic information resources by postgraduates‟ students of Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Using the research is survey method approach, the simple random sampling was used to selected responded from among the postgraduate students from 200 to 500 all types of users that came to use the library within the study period. The research tool used for data collection was a questionnaire tagged ‟Usage of Electronic information resources”. A total of 240 questionnaires were distributed of which 172 were duly filled giving a response rate of 71.66%. The finding revealed that 89.54% of the respondents had use of electronic information resources; with 10.46% respondents are not use of electronic information resources. The main access points were home/hostels; only 19.76% of respondents had used the library to access electronic information resources and 80.24% of them were satisfied with the library electronic information resources. The major electronic information resources are used by postgraduate students were internet search engines, e-lecture notes and e-books and they use it for completing class assignments, to obtain course related materials. Training of postgraduate students in electronic information resources searching skill by the library; the provision of internet and networked computers in department and lecturers giving assignment that require use of electronic information resources would increase the use of electronic information resources among the postgraduate students.

Utilisation of e-resources to support teaching and research in higher learning institutions, Tanzania

This study was conducted to compare the use of electronic information resources in selected universities in Tanzania. The study employed a mixed methods research approach to collecting, processing, analysing data and discussing the resultant findings. In all, 119 academic staff and researchers participated in the study. SPSS and STATA were used to analyse the data. The key findings suggest that the majority of academic staff and researchers were aware of, have access to and utilise e-resources to support teaching and research. On the whole, the study found a significant and positive association between awareness and access, access and use. In fact, most of the e-resources the selected higher learning institutions subscribed to through COTUL were under-utilised. Apart from information literacy skills, personal motivations and e-resource infrastructures, demographic characteristics such as age and education level of academic staff and researchers are predictors in e-resources usage. Furthermore, the challenges and problems that deter the effective utilisation of e-resources were include slow internet connectivity, inability to access full-text articles, unreliable power supply, inaccessibility of e-resources outside university premises due to IP address limitations, inadequate ICT infrastructure and inadequate skills and knowledge. The study found that there was a need to promote the usage of e-resources through web technologies to enhance the quality of teaching and research.

Learner Perception on Library Services at Kandy, Matara and Anuradhapura Regional Centres of the Open University of Sri Lanka

The study examines the usage of library and information services provided by selected regional centre libraries of the Open University of Sri Lanka. It attempts to find out the needs, expectations and usage of the library by distant learners and their perceptions about library services. The study sample (n=350) was drawn from a population of 1550 students of three selected regional centre libraries of the Open University of Sri Lanka. The study found that the users are satisfied with the overall library resources, services and facilities available, but users are not really getting the full benefit of the library services and some of the services are under-utilized. The major causes or reasons for this problem are the lack of comprehensiveness of the regional library collections, insufficient space for reading area, inadequate training for users in services and the lack of computers and Internet facilities in the library. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the library should order multiple copies of reading material, extend the lending period for a period of one month in regional centres, increase the number of computers for users and provide online access facilities. It is also recommended that a comprehensive information literacy program should be conducted to promote awareness and use of electronic information resources.

Use of electronic information resources by postgraduate students of universities in north central Nigeria

The study examined the Use of Electronic Information Resources by Postgraduate Students of Universities in North Central Nigeria. Descriptive survey research method was adopted for this study in five government owned universities in North Central Nigeria. The population of the study comprised of postgraduate students in the under studied universities and 357 postgraduate students were sampled for the study. A structured questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection and data obtained was analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentage and mean score. The study revealed that postgraduate students access electronic information resources on a daily basis and uses of these resources is mostly twice a week. Furthermore, the use of electronic information resources has improved their research productivity. Recommendations were given at the end which if followed will improve the Use of Electronic Information Resources by Postgraduate Students of Universities in North Central Nigeria.

The acceptance and use of electronic information resources among faculty of selected Gulf Cooperation Council States universities

This study aims to explain the factors affecting academic faculty’s acceptance and usage of university library electronic information resources (EIRs) services in six public universities in the Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCCS). The applied model was tested via structural equation modeling (SEM) by using valid data collected from 499 responses to the questionnaire survey. The findings indicate that performance expectancy, habit, hedonic motivation, and facilitating conditions were significant antecedents of behavioral intention, and that performance expectancy, habit, and behavioral intention were significant antecedents of user behavior. The influence of the individual characteristics as moderators varied based on the path. While much of the research on the adoption of EIRs services provides a rich understanding of behavioral intention and system use, the current study enhances library professionals’ understanding by incorporating further antecedents that can be used to guide approaches to enhancing EIRs services. Several important implications for researchers (i.e. extending the acceptance models with new interventions) and practitioners (i.e. guiding approaches to the enhancement of EIRs services) are discussed.

Use of Databases by Users of Engineering Colleges in Goa State

Studied of data collected from 1092 students and faculties by administering questionnaires on their use of electronic information resources especially different databases in four engineering colleges of Goa State and found that, students are more educated than faculties in the use of CD/DVD's databases. Further, it is revealed that users searching information mainly based upon Title search in CD/DVD's databases. Very less percent respondents faced difficulty in using CD/DVD's. Faculties encountered more difficulty than students.