Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
The importance and significance of electronic resources to teaching and research is widely recognized by many researchers. 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. They have also been shown to be more helpful especially to faculty and distance learners who may have limited access to library resources in traditional formats. Information and communication technologies have transformed most traditional libraries into hybrid libraries storing most of their resources in both print and electronic formats. The study seeks to investigate faculty’s awareness and usage of online academic databases in order to determine the benefits they associate with electronic resources and the challenges they encounter in accessing electronic resources. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. This is because questionnaires are an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents. A total of one hundred respondents were surveyed for this study. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software version 16 was used to analyse the data collected into frequencies and percentages. 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, 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 the library had subscription to these databases. In the light of the above revelations, there is the need for the library to heighten awareness creation among faculty members and student on the existence and usage of its electronic resources.