Scholarly Information Access Pattern of UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium by Faculty and Research Scholars in Gandhigram Rural Institute-Deemed University (India)

Why E-Resource Only?

‘E-resource’ is “a term used to describe a variety of resources in an electronic format, e.g. databases, ‘the Web’, e-journals” (Murthy, 2005). No doubt the print mode of information is still dominant medium but now it becomes the secondary mode due to the innovations in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its involvement in managing, manipulating, and disseminating the information. Today, user needs latest and authentic information with minute time lag. we cannot wait for weeks or months to get needed information. Here electronic resources are enabling to fulfill these needs; therefore, the whole world is shifting from print resources to electronic resources (Murthy, 2005). Some of the advantages of e-resources are:

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  Speedy Information: One can get the information very quickly through e-resources even many weeks before as compared to print issues.

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  E-mailing: One can e-mail the output or important article at his/her e-mail account or any researcher or academicians e-mail account but that one should be limited to copyright issue.

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  E-mail alert: User can get information according to his/her desired journals or topics by registering oneself in the publisher’s site.

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  Hyper links: An E- resource contains the links to other cited articles, e-journals, and other supporting material making like audio, visual aids, etc.

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  Maintenance: E-resources have not the problem of wearing and tearing, stolen, binding and shelving, etc.

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  Multi access: E-resources have the facility to change the concept of single user to multi user access at one time. In simple words, more than one user can access the same information simultaneously.

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  Search facilities: E-resources have the different search options like simple or quick, advance search, which is totally based on Boolean- logic, and search within the search result.

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  No time limit: There is no limit or restriction in respect of time, e-resources can be used on the terms of 24 x 7 hours.

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  Economical: The access to electronic resources can be provided with 85-90% discount compared to print collections. This means access to more resources for less money.