Effect of library training on usage of E-databases by students and teaching faculty in private Higher Educational University.

Authors

Seeta Devi PentaFollow

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Abstract

Libraries are vital in providing academic and research resources to the students and faculty working in various universities. The benefits of using e- databases are immense as these resources can be easily accessed anywhere on the educational campus or at home. Therefore, most higher academic universities facilitate e- databases and make them centrally available to their scholars. Conducting periodical training programs on the usage of e- databases is found essential. The study's objectives are to assess the effect of a library training program on the use of centrally subscribed online databases. The researcher has adopted a case study design to implement the study. The samples were the teaching staff, undergraduate (3rd and 4th year BSc students), postgraduate, and Ph.D. scholars. About 300 samples were recruited by using a random stratified sampling technique. The user’s data was collected from Koha software. A survey research method was executed to gather information regarding the barriers to not using the various E- databases. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect the problems faced by the non-users of databases. Out of 20 e- databases, most of them were subscribed in the year 2015and 2019. Before piloting the training program, some of the databases were never used. Largely 47 % to 58 % of participants have got into only Turnitin and Scopus databases. Following the training program, about 73 % to 92 % of the participants retrieved Scopus and Turnitin databases for their research activities. From the current study, it is manifestly unspoken that periodical library training programs are crucial to making the fresher aware of the usage and availability of databases in the library.