Abstract
In this chapter, the author investigates the user choices of e-resources among users of college libraries in Karnataka, India. The scholar identifies purpose of using internet by staff and students as well as assessing their information. Findings shows that majority of users are using internet to their career development 99.60%. 99.42% of respondents are using internet for communicate purpose. Majority of staff do not choose e-books and e-reports. Students are also not choosing e-theses and dissertations. Regarding journals, the majority of students' choices are print versions.
TopIntroduction
Library is learning center for learning minds. The colleges are the centers for higher education and training. The college libraries play an important role in promoting education in colleges and the students and faculties are the users. Online information or digital information resources are increasingly becoming available due to advance growth Information and communication technologies. As a result, the use of Internet and its online resources and services is growing more rapidly indicating a shift in user’s preferences towards online services.
The same time, the demand of users has also been changed. In these situations, library services are more users’ oriented and online services like Web-OPAC, institutional repository, electronic information resources and other may be provided.
College Libraries
Every college must have a good library and it occupies a prominent position in college campus and it is the pulsing heart of the college (Narasappa, 2016). In India, the UGC has provided generous funds to purchase reference books and textbooks as well as construction of library building (UGC, 2019). As a result of it, the classroom teaching is now supplemented by library usage. Books on latest teaching methods provide exhaustive knowledge of the subjective to the students.
Internet can be called ‘the information communication system established by the national and international linking of material stored on electronic database and made accessible throughout the world through telephone, cable and other telecommunication links’ (Mudawi, 2005).
Internet is moving to be single most significant phenomena offering never-ending opportunities. The use of internet in the libraries is rapidly increasing and is changing the traditional functions and services of the libraries internet is being used as an efficient medium for access, storing and dissemination of information worldwide (Naik, et al. 2019). Hence, Internet is the gateway for libraries and information centers to electronic information era and different organizations/institutions, research centers and individual all over the world generate information in digital form on the internet. Creation of digital resources with the establishment of digital library is the need of the day.
Methodology
The investigator has randomly distributed questionnaire to 1260 respondents among 4 districts of Karnataka in India and each district 325 questionaries’ were distributed. Out of 1260 questionnaires the researcher has received 900 filled-in questionnaires from the respondents. The collected questionnaires were edited, tabulated and used for analysis. Further study related to all the colleges come under the Bangalore University of Karnataka state.
Review Literature
Kumar and Naik (2015) have jointly conducted a study on “Usage of Wi-Fi Service among Users' of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute Library, Bangalore”. The main purpose among 75% of users was to avail this facility for searching articles through an online database.
Mittal and Sharma (2015) in their study on “Use of Digital Resources by CCSHAU,
Hisar library users; A case study” analyzed that 55.73% users use the Internet in their daily life and there are only 3.05% users who use the internet monthly.
Hajam (2015) has conducted a study on “Users’ perception towards the use of electronic journals (e-journals) at University of Kashmir”. The studies showed that 80.6% respondents prefer both print and electronic medium for reading e-journals. 13.1% of the respondents have shown their preference towards electronic format and 6.3% are inclined towards the print format for reading.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Internet: The internet is a collection of computers that share information. Home users commonly use a phone modem, cable modem, or DSL connection to connect to the Internet. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) connects the home user to other computers.
E-Resources: Electronic resources (or e-resources) are materials in digital format accessible electronically. Examples of e-resources are electronic journals (e-journal), electronic books (e-book) online databases in varied digital formats, Adobe Acrobat documents (.pdf), webpages.
Search Engine: Internet search engine is a software system that is designed to carry out web search (Internet search), which means to search the world wide web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a line of results, often referred to as search engine results pages.
Online Resources: In general, web pages and documents on the Internet that provide useful information. While an online resource is typically data and educational in nature, any support software available online can also be considered a resource.