Exploring undergraduate students’ use and experience of online library resources : a case study of a University of Technology

Abstract

This study seeks to how undergraduate students at one University of Technology experience, and use or not online library resources. According to Komissarov and Murray (2016) little has been done to investigate why students use or do not use the various types of information resources. These researchers further state that convenience is what drives students to use familiar internet search engines like Google compared to subscribed databases. The study sought to explore the use of online or electronic resources by undergraduate students at the Durban University of Technology, and also to establish the reasons for non-use. The target population were third year students enrolled for Nursing, Civil Engineering and Education at a South African University of Technology. The study adopted the mixed methods approach combining the quantitative and qualitative methods applied sequentially. A structured online questionnaire was designed using QuestionPro. This was used in collecting numerical data which was analysed using SPSS version 26. Focus group discussions were used to collect qualitative data. Ms Teams was used for focus groups because students were not available on campus during the data collection phase. This all happened during the COVID19 lockdown which saw the University closed down. The recording option on MS teams was used to record the sessions for later transcribing. Findings of the study reveal that students still prefer to use general search engines like Google and YouTube as opposed to the subscribed electronic databases to find information. This is worrisome considering that when they use only Google and YouTube, students do not get the academic benefit of the electronic resources geared to their fields of study on which the university has spent a considerable amount of money. The study concludes that students are not fully utilising the online library resources that the library makes available to them.