Assessment of the use of electronic resources among administrators and faculty in the University of Cape Coast.
Kwafoa, Paulina Nana Yaa ; Imoro, Osman ; Afful-Arthur, Paulina 等
Introduction
Libraries over the past few decades have evolved in their quest to
continue to play a vital role in ensuring quality education and
research. With the advent of information and communication technologies
such as the internet and the web, electronic resources have become a
widely accepted scholarly resource for both students and faculty.
Technological advances have brought about radical changes in the way
modern organizations operate, and the library is no exception. It has
influenced the way libraries gather, store, organize, retrieve and
disseminate information (Sharma, 2009).
Due to new storage media and new channels for transmitting
information, electronic libraries have become crucial to the complete
formation of any university (Tomescu, 2009). Technological advances have
greatly affected scholarly communication (Egberongbe, 2011; Sharma,
2009) because of their potential to deliver goods and services to a
large target market irrespective of their geographical location. As
stated by Sharma (2009) they are also essential in ensuring efficient
retrieval and dissemination of information which is of prime importance
to any academic/university library. Emerging technologies have changed
the traditional library into automated, electronic, virtual and digital
library (Saeed and Sheikh, 2011). It has also transformed most
traditional libraries into hybrid libraries storing most of their
resources in both print and electronic formats. These libraries seek to
complement the shortcomings of both traditional and electronic libraries
in order to meet the demands of their customers. As rightly stated by Wu
(2005) libraries as information brokers cannot reject information
because of its format of transmission but rather they must seek to
harness its strengths and educate users on its weaknesses.
According to Dadzie (2005), electronic resources are invaluable
resources that complement print based resources. They have also been
shown to be very helpful, especially, to post graduate students and
distance learners who may have limited access to library resources in
traditional formats (Egberongbe, 2011; Sharma, 2009). The University of
Cape Coast has been part of the Consortium of Academic and Research
Libraries (CARLIGH) in Ghana which has been responsible for subscribing
to electronic resources on behalf of both the public and private
universities in the country since 1998. On the average the University of
Cape Coast contributes ten thousand dollars US$10,000.00 annually to the
subscription of these databases. However, patronage of these electronic
databases are generally considered to be low, this is because most
students and members of faculty are either unaware of the existence of
the electronic databases in the Library or are just not interested in
them. This paper therefore examines usage of these online databases
among faculty members.
Literature Review
The importance and significance of electronic resources to teaching
and research is widely recognized by many researchers. According to
Schaffner (1994), journals plays a vital role in scholarly community, as
it serves the overall purpose of building a collective knowledge base,
communicating information, validating the quality of research,
distributing rewards and building scientific communities. Numerous
academic institutions in Ghana are currently building substantial
collections of full-text journals and continue to increase access to
various online databases. Through CARLIGH many of these institutions are
able to subscribe to online journals and databases at much more
economical rates as compared to individual subscription.
Many of these studies have focused on students, lecturers and
scholars' usage of electronic resources and their feelings about
its usage (Tenpori, 2003). Studies by Ray and Day (1998), revealed that
83% of students surveyed felt that using electronic resources saved them
time and found it relatively easy to use. Another study by Egberongbe
(2011) showed that 77% of lecturers preferred to use electronic
resources compared to print resources because they found it less time
consuming, even though 66% of them believed that electronic resources
can never diminish the significance and importance of the print
resources.
The availability of electronic resources does not necessarily
illicit utilization. Studies by Dadzie (2005) to examine access and
usage of electronic resources at the Ashesi University College indicated
that even though general computer usage for information access was high
because of the University's state of the art IT infrastructure, the
usage of scholarly databases was quite low. This was attributed to the
lack of awareness about the existence of these library resources. Also,
studies by Ajuwon (2003) assessing the uptake of ICTs by health science
students at the Ibadan University College Hospital, revealed that the
use of the database was poor. This was due to the lack of awareness,
lack of access to computers, insufficient training and the high cost of
internet provision. Finance has been a major constraint to internet
expansion and provision for most universities in Ghana. According to
Ikem and Ajala (2004) the problem of funding is the major constraint of
ICT application in libraries. They were of the view that the problem of
funding is more than just acquisition of the hard and software but
updating and maintenance are very crucial in order to sustain it.
On the contrary, some studies have attributed low patronage in
electronic resources by students and faculty to the poor state of ICT
infrastructure in most universities in Africa. Shija (2009) assessing
the usage of electronic resources via the internet in special libraries
in Tanzania observed that awareness, lack of enough internet skills,
poor infrastructure and connectivity were the major reasons for the low
patronage of electronic resources. Again, Agaba, Kigongo-Bukenya and
Nyumba (2005) examining the utilization of electronic information
resources by academic staff of Makerere University identified the lack
of good telephone services as one of the major obstacle to
computerization and networking by libraries in Uganda. Their results
indicated that 82% of respondents mentioned inadequacy of existing
infrastructure and slow speed or low bandwidth as some of the reasons
that prevented them from accessing electronic resources.
All the above reviewed literatures recognised the importance of
electronic resources to teaching, learning and research. However, they
all identified that the lack of awareness and poor state of ICT
infrastructure as the causes for the low patronage of the electronic
resources.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to examine:
* Faculty's awareness of online databases.
* Faculty's usage of electronic resources for their academic
work.
* The benefits Faculty associate with electronic resources.
* Challenges Faculty encounter in assessing electronic resources.
Methodology
The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research
methodologies. The study was born out of a week-long sensitization
workshop on the usage of electronic resources for faculty members
organized by the Library and the Division of Human Resource's
Training and Development Section of the University of Cape Coast.
Questionnaires were used to collect the data. This is because
questionnaires are an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially
large number of respondents. Often it is the only practical way of
reaching a number of respondents large enough to allow the researcher
statistically analyse the results of the study (Amedahe, 2002). The
researchers personally administered the questionnaires. A total of one
hundred and fifteen respondents were surveyed for this study. However,
only one hundred questionnaires were completed giving an overall return
rate of 86.95%. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS)
software version 16 was used to analyse the data collected into
frequencies and percentages. The responses were grouped according to
their various categories. In the case of open ended items the responses
were coded for analysis. This was done by putting similar responses
under one heading. Similar responses were considered as belonging to the
same category.
Results and Discussions
Demographics
The total breakdown of respondents is shown in table one below
Faculty's awareness of online databases
Research question one was asked to seek information from faculty
members about their knowledge of online academic data bases. The study
revealed that all the faculty members had some level of knowledge and
experience when it comes to internet usage. Table 2 showed that as high
as 49.56% of the respondents used the internet for academic work whiles
4.35% used it for official or clerical work such as e-mailing and
visiting other social networking sites. The study also showed that,
majority (92%) of the faculty members was aware of the existence of
online academic databases as indicated in Table 3. However, upon further
probing most of them did not know that these data bases were being
subscribed to by the university library on behalf of the university.
A further question was asked to enquire from them the databases
that they were aware of. The response is shown in Table 4. From Table 4,
Emerald is the most popular (17.97%) database. This is followed by Sage
journal (27 responses representing 12.44%) with the least being BIOONE
(7 responses representing 3.24%). This can be attributed to the fact
that the majority of the respondents were from the humanities as shown
in table 1. A critical analysis of the result therefore meant that,
general awareness of the library's academic databases was high, but
patronage was low and therefore there is the need to intensify
sensitisation programmes through seminars, workshops and symposiums, to
increase patronage.
Access to web resources is on the increase with majority of
students and faculty surfing the internet vigorously for one piece of
information or the other. However, the means of accessing online
academic information keeps changing with the advancement in information
and communication technology. According to Upadhyay (2008), many
academic institutions are currently building substantial collections of
full text journals and continue to increase access to various online
databases and the University of the Cape Coast is no exception. The
quality of online academic databases is on the rise and as such has made
them indispensable especially for research institutions.
However, the study revealed that the patronage of the
library's online academic resources among faculty members is low.
This is also evident in the number of faculty members who participated
in the seminar. This finding was in agreement with studies conducted by
previous researchers (Shija, 2009; Upadhyay, 2008; Dadzie, 2005; Ajuwon,
2003). Dadzie (2005) in examining access and usage of electronic
resources at the Ashesi University College indicated that even though
general computer usage for information access was high because of the
University's state of the art IT infrastructure, the usage of
scholarly databases was quite low. Therefore, the need to increase
awareness through the development of interactive programmes where
faculty can actually bring the attention of librarians to journals they
find to be more useful.
Faculty's usage of electronic resources
This research question was to seek how often respondents accessed
academic information online whether from an academic database or the
general web. It also sought to find out whether faculty members were
accessing the library's subscribed online databases. Table 5
indicated that the majority (52.0%) of the respondents always accessed
the internet for academic information while 11% occasionally accessed
the internet for academic information. This implies that the demand for
online electronic resources is very high among faculty members.
Table 6 shows which of the library's online academic database
is being accessed by faculty. Table 6 indicate that the most frequently
accessed database is Emerald (24 responses) followed by Ebsco Host (23
responses). This can be attributed to the fact that the majority of the
respondents were in the field of the humanities. However, table 6
revealed that the majority of the respondents (n = 83), even though were
aware of the existence of these databases still did not use them.
Table 7 indicated the format in which respondents preferred their
electronic information. Seventy seven percent (77%) of the respondents
preferred to access online resources in portable documents formats (PDF)
whiles 24% preferred the hyper text mark up language (html) formats.
This can be attributed to the aesthetic appeal of most PDF documents.
The study revealed that all faculty members had some knowledge on
the use of the internet with 52% of them always using the internet for
either academic or personal reasons. This concurred with studies by Ray
and Day (1998) and Renwick (2005) who were of the view that faculty is
quite knowledgeable about the availability of electronic resources via
the internet in general. This also agreed with studies by Jirojwong and
Wallin (2002) who stated that those who were more computer literate
tended to use the Internet as the e-resource of choice. Another study by
Egberongbe (2011) showed that 77% of lecturers preferred to use
electronic resources compared to print resources because they found it
less time consuming. However, most of them sought for academic
information from other databases other than the library's
subscribed online databases because of the various constraints they
encounter when accessing the library's online academic databases.
These constraints contributed significantly to the low patronage of the
library's online academic databases by faculty members.
Challenges Faculty Members encounter in accessing electronic
resources
This question was asked to find out from faculty members the
challenges they encounter in accessing online academic resources. The
result from table 8 revealed that the challenges facing faculty members
in accessing online academic resources are (1) Charges to access
e-Resources (18.31%), (2) lack of proper guidance (19.31%), (3) Slow
nature of the internet (35.92%) and (4) Lack of knowledge about tools
& techniques used for searching and retrieving e-Resources (8.45%).
This meant that there is the need to intensify awareness creation and
education on the accessibility, availability and usage of the
library's online academic databases.
The results of the study concurred with studies by Agaba et al.,
(2005), Ajuwon (2003) and Shija (2009). Ajuwon (2003) assessing the
uptake of ICTs by health science students at the Ibadan University
College Hospital identified insufficient training and the high cost of
internet provision as major constraints to the access of online
electronic resources. Shija (2009) and Agaba et al., (2005) mentioned
the lack of enough internet skills, poor infrastructure and slow speed
or low bandwidth or connectivity as the major reasons for the low
patronage of electronic resources. This clearly shows that to elicit
patronage there is also the need not only to increase awareness but also
improve on the existing ICT infrastructure to make them reliable and
convenient to its users.
The benefits Faculty associate with electronic resources
Electronic resources have been proven by several studies to be
essential to teaching and research. This research question was asked to
determine the level of benefit faculty attached to the use of electronic
resources. Table 9 revealed that majority (46.0%) of the respondents
found electronic resources to be highly beneficial whiles 13% of the
respondents were neutral about the benefit they derive from using
electronic resources. Further probe as to why they were adamant about
the benefits of electronic resources revealed that these respondents
were of the opinion that electronic resources, even thou beneficial,
cannot replace print resources. Also, most of the respondents (87%) who
found electronic resources to be either beneficial or highly beneficial
mentioned that electronic resources saved them time and found it
relatively easy to use. This concurred with findings by Ray and Day
(1998) and Egberongbe (2011).
Customer satisfaction has been used frequently in most literatures
to describe or measure how library products and services meet or surpass
user expectation. Table 10 indicates the level of satisfaction faculty
attribute to the use of electronic resources. Majority of the
respondents (47%) were satisfied with the quality of information they
obtained from electronic resources while 40.0% were highly satisfied.
This clearly shows that faculty members place a high premium on
information they obtain from online electronic databases. This concurred
with findings by Mirza and Mahmood (2012) which revealed that users of
the Pakistani university libraries are satisfied with the information
they obtain from online databases.
Conclusions
The real purpose of any academic library is to provide its users
with relevant up to date information in order to fulfill its core
function of facilitating teaching, learning and research. In
today's contemporary world where the internet has become crucial to
the survival of any establishment, it is incumbent on academic libraries
to provide its users with access to online academic databases. The study
established clearly that faculty members depend highly on online
electronic resources not only for the purposes of research, but also to
support their teaching. However, despite this overwhelming revelation it
was realized that the patronage of the library's online academic
databases was very low. This was largely because faculty members were
either not aware of the existence of these databases or were not aware
that the library subscribes to these databases.
This also shows clearly that faculty members sought for access to
online electronic databases through other means other than the library.
In their ever increasing demand for subscriptions to more databases with
journal titles of international repute faculty members experienced some
constraints, prominent among these were the slow nature of the internet
especially during working hours and the lack of proper guidance on how
to access these online databases. In the light of the above revelations,
there is the need for the library to heighten awareness creation among
faculty members and students on the existence and usage of these
important resources. Also, there is the need for a conscious effort by
the university authorities to improve on the University's ICT
infrastructure in order to facilitate access to the online databases
from wherever they may be located.
References
Agaba, D. M., Kigongo-Bukenya, & Nyumba, J. B. (2005).
Utilization of electronic information resources by academic staff at
Makerere University in Uganda. University of Dar es Salaam Library
Journal, 6(1), 18-28.
Ajuwon G. A. (2003). Computer and Internet Use by First Year
Clinical and Nursing students in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital. BMC
Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 3(10).
Dadzie, P. S. (2005). Electronic Resources: access and usage at
Ashesi University College. Campus-wide Information Systems, 22 (5).
Retrieved from http//www.emeraldinsight.com on 5th September, 2013.
Egberongbe, S. H. (2011). The Use and Impact of Electronic
Resources at the University of Lagos. Library Philosophy and Practice
(e-journal). Paper 472. Retrieved from
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/472 on 8th September, 2013.
Jirojwong, S., & Wallin, M. (2002). Use of formal and informal
methods to gain information among faculty at an Australian Regional
University. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28(1-2):68-73.
Ikem J. E., & Ajala E. E. (2000). Some developments in
information technology at the Kenneth Dike Library. In Fayose P. O.,
& Nwalo K. I. N. (Eds.). Information technology in library and
information science education in Nigeria. Ibadan: NALISE. 27-28.
Mirza, M. S., & Mahmood, K. (2012). Electronic resources and
services in Pakistani university libraries: A survey of users'
satisfaction. The International Information Library Review, 44(3):
123-131.
Ray, K. and Day J. (1998). Student attitudes towards electronic
information resources. Information Research, 4(2). Retrieved from
http://informationr.net/ir/4-2/paper54.html on 15th September, 2013.
Renwick, S. (2005). Knowledge and use of electronic information
resources by medical sciences faculty at The University of the West
Indies. Journal Medical Library Association, 93(1): 21-31.
Saeed, U. I., & Sheikh, R. A. (2011). Automation of University
Libraries: A Comparative Analysis of Islamabad and Khyber Pukhtoon Khwa,
Pakistan. Library Philosophy and Practice. Retrieved from
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbo lin/jan-sheikh.htm on 8th September
2013.
Schafner, A. C. 1994. The future of scientific journals: Lessons
from the past. Information Technology and Libraries, 13:239-4.
Sharma, C. (2009). Use and Impact of E-Resources at Guru Gobind
Singh Indraprastha University (India): A Case Study. Electronic Journal
of Academic and Special Librarianship, 10 (1), 58-64.
Shija, H. (2009). E-resources use via the internet improvement is a
must: a case of special libraries in Tanzania. Retrieved from
www.ais.up.ac.za/digi/docs/paper _shija.doc on 9th October, 2013.
Tenopir, C. (2003). Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources:
An Overview and Analysis of Recent Research Studies. Council on Library
and Information Resources: Washington, DC.
Tomescu, S. (2009). The importance of electronic library services
for academic study and research. Retrieved from
htttp://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/48068
49/the-importance-of-electronic-library-services-elearningeuropainfo on
14th September, 2013.
University of Cape Coast (2011).Vice Chancellor's Annual
Report to the 42nd Congregation. University Printing Press: Cape Coast.
Wu, M. M. (2005). Why print and electronic resources are essential
to the academic Law Library. Law Library Journal, 97: 233-256. Retrieved
from http://scholars hip.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/783 on 20th
September, 2013.
Paulina Nana Yaa Kwafoa
University of Cape Coast, Ghana
[email protected]
Osman Imoro
University of Cape Coast, Ghana
[email protected]
Paulina Afful-Arthur
University of Cape Coast, Ghana
[email protected]
Table 1: Breakdown of respondents
Department Number of
respondents
Faculty of law /Administrators 30
Biological /Medical Sciences 15
Faculty of Education / Faculty 19
of Arts
Faculty of Social Sciences / 16
School of Business
School of Physical Sciences/ 20
School of Agriculture
Total 100
Table 2: Purpose for using the internet
Response Frequency Percentage (%)
Academic 57 49.56
Personal 53 46.09
Official work 5 4.35
Total 115 100
Table 3: Library online databases
Response Frequency Percent
Yes 92 92.00
No 8 8.00
Total 100 100.00
Table 4: Awareness of Academic databases
Item Response Percent
Emerald 39 17.97
Ebsco host 24 11.06
Jstor 26 11.98
Hinari 26 11.98
Taylor and Francis 16 7.37
Sage journals 27 12.44
Cambridge University 21 9.68
Science direct 16 7.37
African Journal Online 15 6.91
BIOONE 7 3.24
Total 217 100.00
Table 5: Frequency of usage
Response Frequency Percent
Always 52 52.0
Very Frequently 37 37.0
Occasionally 11 11.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 6: Electronic Resources accessed by respondents
Item Response
Emerald 24
Ebsco host 23
Jstor 13
Hinari 23
Taylor and Francis 5
Sage journals 14
Cambridge University 7
Science direct 9
African Journal Online 9
BIOONE 4
None 83
Total 217
Table 7: Preferred format
Response Frequency Percent
Pdf 76 76.0
Html 24 24.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 8: Constraints to effective access to online
electronic resources
Constraint Response Percent
Charges to access e-Resources 26 18.31
Lack of proper guidance 27 19.01
Lack of proper e-Resources 15 10.56
Slow nature of the internet 51 35.92
Lack of portability in contrast with 11 7.75
original print materials
Lack of knowledge about tools & techniques 12 8.45
Used for searching and
retrieving of e-Resources
Total 142 100
Table 9: Benefits of E-resources
Response Frequency Percent
Highly Beneficial 46 46.0
Beneficial 41 41.0
Neutral 13 13.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 10: How satisfactory
Response Frequency Percent
Highly Satisfied 40 40.0
Satisfied 47 47.0
Neutral 11 11.0
Dissatisfied 2 2.0
Total 100 100.0
