Abstract
The study gives an empirical view about the advent of electronic information resources (EIRs) with respect to their impact on the overall academic and research development. The chapter is the outcome of a survey conducted across seven agricultural universities of North India while using a questionnaire as a data collection tool. It is understood that the e-resources have really proved to be a boon for academic fraternities comprising of the students, teachers, and the researchers. The majority of them are now feeling much more comfortable and competent to search the information of their own. The electronic availability of the information has enabled them to generate new and diversified research ideas and as such the research output has improved both in quantity and quality. So, it is understood that at an average, the advent of e-resources has laid a positive impact on the core academic affairs (i.e., the study, teaching, and research).
TopIntroduction
The academic fraternity i.e. the students, teachers and the researchers are dependent on the availability of the information relevant to their fields of study and research. The quantity and quality of their academic output is directly proportional to the quantity and quality of information of their relevance. Electronic Information Resources are actually the electronic counter parts of the print information. However, due to the advent of electronic form of information and intelligent information processing and communication technology the academic and research activities are observed to have gone through a great improvement across the globe. The most significant advantage with the electronic form o information resource is that it can be used by more than one user simultaneously and that it can be made accessible on anytime anywhere basis thus eradicating the restrictions/barricades of time and place of access. The information can now be shared through better, economical, faster, wider and flexible means. However, cost of information resources in electronic form is much more than their print versions (Selvaraja, 2014). It proves individually difficult for economically poor libraries to subscribe to each and every electronic source of information they need. It is for this reason that new avenues of subscription, like that of demand driven acquisition, article level subscription, chapter to chapter procurement, etc. are coming up as new means to mitigate the shock of their costliness. So yet a situation of uncertainty is seen wherein the availability of information seems to be both improved, as well as impaired, so for as its electronic form is concerned. The study has been conducted with an objective to arrive at an overall conclusion, whether the availability of information resources in electronic form has resulted in an improvement in the academic and research pursuits or not. This main objective was sought to be realized by finding answers to following research questions.
- •
Has the advent of e-resources got any bearing on competence of users with respect to searching of information?;
- •
Has the rate of generation of new ideas increased or decreased?;
- •
What is the impact of advent of e-resources on quantity of research output?;
- •
What is the impact of advent of e-resources on quality of research work?;
- •
Have the chances of citation of research output been increased or decreased due to advent of electronic availability of information?;
- •
If the duplication of research has diminished or enhanced in electronic era?; and
- •
Whether the menace of plagiarism in electronic era has increased or decreased.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Citability: Chances of being cited by others across a variety of research publications.
Duplication of Research: Research conducted by two or more scholars on same topic or problem of study at same or different places of globe.
E-Resources: Sources of information available in electronic (digital/analogue) format and accessible in offline/online modes through intranet or Internet over computers, book-readers, tablets, smart-phones, etc.
Quality of Research Work: Per capita research output in a specific domain on knowledge over a specific period of time.
Quantity of Research Output: Efficacy and application of research output like that of publications, technology, techniques, procedures, theories, etc.
Plagiarism: Usage of ideas, means, methods, sayings, explorations, inventions, discoveries taken from others’ work(s) without incorporating a proper citation of the used content in one’s work.
User Competence: Competence of users with respect to searching of information in online and offline modes under electronic atmosphere.
Remote Access: Accessibility of electronic sources of information irrespective of place/time of access, i.e. anywhere anytime access.
Generation of New Ideas: Identification of research problems of novel nature with unique manifestations.