Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
Purpose – This study reports the trends and practices of seeking online information sources of Science faculties of a university of developing country. The focus was to explore their trends and practices of accessing and using online sources in both modes, i.e. Open Access (OA) and Subscribed Access (SA) to meet their academic and research information.
Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative design of research, based on a self-completion structured questionnaire survey was used. Surveyed population consisted of whole full time S&T teachers working in the 25 institutions/colleges/departments of all four S&T faculties viz. Sciences, Life Science, Engineering & Technology and Pharmacy of the University of the Punjab. Total response rate was 71% (156 out of 220 existed members). Frequency measure, descriptive statistics (mean (µ) and further, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze, to interpret the data and to draw conclusions.
Findings – The survey results report valuable information regarding the digital access culture of this community. Though these are not considered extremely important and nor, are fully exploiting. Yet both modes are playing important and complementing role in meeting the e-scholarly needs of this community. It also discloses that there is no significant difference exists regarding the importance, use of both modes and adequacy level of subscribed sources among faculties.
Originality/value- Comparative analyses show no significant difference between the importance and use of these both modes in meeting the e-information. This study is the first account of the utilization of online modes by Science faculties of university.
Key words: Electronic scholarly communication; Open Access; Pakistan; Scientists; Subscribed Sources.
Paper type- Research paper