A Study on User Attitude towards E-Resources offered by the Vavuniya Campus Library

Abstract

Electronic resources which require computer access or any electronic product are materials in the digital format accessible electronically that delivers a collection of data. The main objective of this study is to assess and evaluate the use of e-resources, and to identify the level of satisfaction with the information accessed by the students of the Vavuniya Campus through the available e-resources. The population of this study was 991. The stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select the students as a sample from each of the four departments of the two faculties. Three hundred user questionnaires were administered among the users and only 284 filled in usable questionnaires were returned making a sizable response rate of 94.6%. Descriptive and Inferential Statistics were used in analyzing the data by using SPSS software 22.0. This study confirms that the students (76%) are aware of the e-resources offered by the campus and the majority of the students (84%) prefer to access e-resources as it gives the updated real information very quickly. The final year students (92%) are mostly interested to utilize the e-resources for their dissertation work. Some of the students (32%) reports that they did not access any e-resources offered by the campus. The students (87%) requested to improve the infrastructure facilities of the library so as to access the e-resources from the library. The students (63%) further complained that they are unable to access e resources outside the campus premises and it seems as a rawback to them to access the e-resources from their residence in leisure time. The analysis found that the students (82%) have positive attitudes about the accessibility of e-resources and they (78%) are satisfied with the available e-resources. It is suggested for the improvement in the access facilities with high Internet speed and subscription to more e-resources. An awareness programme should also be created to increase the usage of e-resources by all the students