An Evaluation of E-Resources in Academic Libraries in Tamil Nadu

An Evaluation of E-Resources in Academic Libraries in Tamil Nadu 1 S. Dhanavandan, 2 M. Tamizhchelvan 1 Assistant Librarian, 2 Deputy Librarian Gandhigram Rural Institute - Deemed University, Gandhigram-624 302, Dindigul Dt. TN. dhanavandan@gmail.com ABSTRACT E-resources are resources in which information is stored electronically and it can be accessible through electronic systems and network environment. E-resources are a very broad term that includes a variety of different file formats. Instant access is quite possible with E-resources within a fraction of second. Acquiring knowledge from E-Books, E-Journals, Online resources, CD- ROM, Internet with related Databases are the impact of E-Resources. The purpose of this paper is to identify the availability of E-resources facility and accessing mode in the engineering institutions in Tamilnadu. A well structured questionnaire was distributed among library professionals in engineering institutions in Tamilnadu to evaluate the E-resource facility. Keywords: E-Resources, Electronic, Self financing Engineering Institutions, Access Mode 1. INTRODUCTION Today libraries are providing electronic access to a wide variety of resources, including indexes, full-text articles, complete journals with back files and Internet / Web resources. In fact, libraries have been moving towards an electronic environment, in which sufficient computers are necessary for patrons to access information. The array of electronic resources available in libraries today is an outgrowth of the changes in information delivery made possible through advances in both computer technologies, such as powerful personal desktop workstations, and information storage and delivery mechanisms, such as CD-ROMs and user-friendly graphical user interfaces (GUIs). These advances made the ongoing efforts to replace other traditional services and processes with electronic versions attractive and economically feasible for many libraries. 2. E-RESOURCES An electronic resource is defined as a resource which requires computer access or any electronic product that delivers a collection of dada, be it text referring to full text bases, electronic journals, image collections, other multimedia products and numerical, graphical or time based, as a commercially available title that has been published with an aim to being marketed. These may be delivered on cd rom, on tape, via internet and so on. Over the past few years, a number of techniques about related standards have been developed which allow documents to be created and distributed in electronic form. The e- resource on magnetic and optical media has a vast impact on the collections of university libraries. Electronic publishing has lead to new era of communications and information sharing. It creates opportunities for users as well as authors and publishers. Many of the electronic books or electronic publisher s web site freely permit and encourage readers to provide feedback on works, often directly to the author rather to the publisher. Nevertheless users may establish their own accounts, charge services to credit cards or to pay by prearranged method, and have requested material delivered directly to them by fax, e-mail, etc. today, libraries of all kinds have been spending larger and larger shares of their budgets to adopt or gain access to electronic resources from publishers and vendors. This is due to the fact that e- resources have enabled libraries to improve services in a variety of ways. First, most e-resources come equipped with powerful search and retrieval tools that allow users to perform literature searches more effectively and efficiently. Moreover, since most relevant e-resources are now available through the web, users can have desktop access to them 24 hours a day. There are several forms and types of electronic resources which are available on the internet, some of the popular ones that are gaining ground are the electronic journals, standards, technical specifications, reports, patents, full text articles, trade reports and hosts of other document sources. Also the printed editions of scholarly journals are available on the web. The publishers of journals are themselves providing services like contents, abstracts of articles, full text, before the actual printed edition is put on the stands. Majority of this kind of service providers are those publishers who have several journal publications to their credit, e.g., Elsevier, Academic Press, Springer, Oxford University Press, Taylor and Francis Blackwell Science and others. Their services are available 421

to anyone having access to RSS feed with free of cost. Some of the journals are only available on commercial basis for which to pay and use the required amount, and for these journals, users have to pay for the view and if needed, per copy for the print also. UGC-INFONET and INDEST- Consortium are two major initiatives that have come to the rescue of academic libraries so that they can cater to the needs of academia with reasonable subscription fee. Organising e-sources is one of the important and crucial works to provide services to the users of the library information system. In a modern digital library information system, the professionals should have skills like computing, database management, networking, and other management skills relating to IT environment. Therefore, library information professionals should keep in mind the followings points while organizing the e- resources. 1) To include those resources either in OPAC or to make difference list for browsing 2) Organized to access the e-resources either by alphabetical or under specific subject headings for browsing. 3) To se up gateway to e-resources for easy access. 4) To develop the institutional repositories for the institutional publications journal and proceedings papers. 5) To check the method of access to e-resources, abstracting or full, since most of the users search the resources under subject heading predominantly, organization of e-resources should be in a such a way that the users could be able to retrieve different sets of information records. 3. REVIEW OF LITEARTURE Asemi and Riyahiniya (2007) conducted a survey to investigate the awareness and use of digital resources by 0 students in the libraries of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The results were that 70 percent of students were aware of digital resources, but only 69 percent of them have used them; 62 percent were aware of offline databases, whereas only about 19 percent used them through the Central Library LAN network. In total 87 percent of students felt that the available data resources met their information needs. Users are faced with problems like low speed connectivity and shortage of hardware facilities. An exploratory study by Vezzosi (2009) at the University of Parma (Italy) on information behaviour of doctoral students showed that, doctoral students rely heavily on the internet for their research work. Students demonstrated progress throughout the years of their doctorate course in terms of awareness and information competence. Parameshwar and Patils (2009) paper highlights a large portion of user population in the university are aware about the internet, but they do not know all its techniques and applications. Further, a few users of the university still have no knowledge about the internet and related applications. For this purpose, there is need for effective user education, to develop awareness and knowledge of the users. More efforts by librarian at Gulbarga University are needed to educate users to effectively use the internet and its techniques and applications. Umesh Kumar Agarwal and Rajesh Kumar Dave (2009) have studied the use of internet by the scientists and research fellows of Central Arid Zone Research Institute(CAZRI), Jodhpur (Rajasthan) was assessed on the basis of a questionnaire survey in CAZRI. Further, it also attempts to assess the frequency of use, location where used; search engine accessed; purpose of use, etc. The study revealed that the respondents accessed Google search frequently (100%) followed by Yahoo (85.29%). It is also observed that equally (97.06%) respondents use the internet for education and research. The strong desire of respondents is that the library initiate various functions and services like e-portals, on-line information, abstracts retrieval along with internet. Govinda raju (2010) found by his survey that the use of electronic resources is found to be significant among the users of the Andhra University. This is quite natural and expected in the present day implementation environment. Some of the resources such as e-book, e-encyclopedias, e-dictionaries are less used. He also felt that to further maximize use of the e-resources, wide publicity and imparting trainings were found to be necessary. Kattimani and Kamble (2010) made a study on awareness of Internet and online information resources. His study is confined only to the Honey well library, Bangalore. Data collected from the administrative staff, supportive staff and software engineers. The response rate is 80%. The study revealed that about 80.2% of the library users have quality awareness on Internet information resources. 4. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY This study is to identify the evaluation of E- Resources and facilitates. Library services to ensure that the information needs of the user community are met, regardless of their location. It enables libraries to deliver valuable information that already exists within library walls electronically to patrons out side the wall. 5. OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the availability of library E-Resources 2. To identify availability of different E-Resources 422

3. To assess the types of Electronic Accessing Mode 6. METHODOLOGY This study analyse the assessment of e-resources facilities in the libraries of engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu. 200 questionnaires were distributed among the library professionals of the engineering institutions libraries in Tamil Nadu. 140 responses were received. The relevant data are collected from the librarians of the concerned institutions by employing mailed questionnaire method. The data collection was carried out from January 2011 to May 2011. The respondents have properly answered the queries posed by the researcher. After completion of answering, they returned the questionnaires to the researcher. The general data interpretation is done with the application of percentage analysis, analysis of variance. 7. CLASSIFICATION OF ENGINEERING INSTITUTIONS The engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu have been classified based on the year of establishment for the purpose of analysing. The categories are Long, Medium and Short duration institutions. Long Duration Institutions denotes the engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu which were started years ago i.e., prior to 1995. Medium Duration Institutions denotes the institutions which were started in the last 10 years. i.e., before 2005. And, Short Duration Institutions denotes the institutions which were started in the after 2005. 8. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS 8.1 Distribution of Questionnaires of engineering institutions libraries Table 1: Questionnaire distributed among libraries Sl.No. Questionnaire Distributed 1 200 Questionnaire Received 140 (70.00) % 60 (30.00) As per the above Tale 1, the 200 questionnaires were distributed to the various self financing engineering institution libraries in Tamil Nadu.140 respondents are replied out of 200 libraries. But, rest of the 60 (30%) libraries from the self financing engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu are not replied. 8.2 Availability of E-Resources at Engineering Institutions Libraries in Tamil Nadu The duration wise status of aavailability of E-Resources in engineering institution libraries in Tamil Nadu has been presented in Table 2. Table 2: Availability of E-Sources at Engineering Institutions Libraries in Tamil Nadu Duratio n e -Journals e- Books Online Database CD ROM Database Internet Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Tota l Long 18 (100.00) 0 10 (55.56) 8 (44.44) 11 (61.11) 7 (38.89) 18 (44.44) 0 18 (100.00) 0 18 Medium 65 (92.85) 5 (7.14) 45 (64.29) 45 (64.29) 68 (97.14) 2 (2.86) 70 Short 44 (84.61) 8 (.38) (28.85) 37 (71.) 21 (40.38) 31 (59.62) 37 (71.) (28.85) 47 (90.38) 5 (9.62) 52 Total 127 (90.71) 13 (9.29) 50 90 (64.39) 67 (47.86) 73 (52.14) 100 (71.43) 40 (28.7) 133 (95.00) 7 (5.00) 140 (Figures in parentheses denote percentage) 423

From table 2, it could be noted, all the 18(100) long duration institutions, 44 (84.61) short duration libraries and 65 (92.85) medium duration institution libraries have e-journals in their libraries. In the case of e-books, long duration institutions take the first place with a 10(55.56) and second in medium duration institution libraries ie.71%. The of medium duration libraries have on-line dada bases, 21 libraries of short duration institution libraries but 11(61.11) libraries of long duration institution libraries have the on-line data bases facility. Out of the 140 sample libraries, 100(71.43%) libraries have CD ROM data bases in their collection. All the long duration institution libraries have CD ROM databases. Out of the 100 libraries, 45 (64.29) belong to medium duration institution libraries. Figure 1: Availability of E-Resources Engineering Institutions Libraries Table 3: ANOVA (Two Way) test for E-Resources Vs Institutions ANOVA Summery Result ANOVA Source of Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit Rows 424.3333 2 212.1667 0.4314 0.658039 3.73889 Columns 69.333 9 367.0476 0.746068 0.638776 2.764196 Error 6887.667 18 491.9762 Total 9881.333 23 Source: Computed ANOVA two way model is applied for availability of E-Resources vs Institutions. At one point the computed ANOVA value is 0.43 which is less than its tabulated value at 5 percent level of significance. Hence, variation with respect to possession of number of the availability of E-sources in the library is statistically identified as in significant. At another point the computed ANOVA value is 0.74 which is less than its tabulated value at 5 percent level of significance. Hence, the duration wise variation among the institutions is statistically identified as insignificant with respect to distribution of E - Sources in the libraries of the selected engineering institutions. 424

8.3 Electronic Access Mode Available at Engineering Institution Libraries in Tamil Nadu The duration wise status of availability of Electronic Access Mode at Engineering Institutions Libraries in Tamil Nadu has been presented in Table 4. Table 4: Electronic Access Mode Available at Engineering Institutions Libraries OPAC WEB OPAC SUBJECT GATEWAYS Web sites Duration Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Total Long 17 (94.44) 1 (5.55) 10 (55.56) 8 (44.44) 4 (22.22) 14 (77.78) 3 (16.67) (83.33) 18 Medium 58 (82.86) 12 (17.14) 45 (64.29) 6 (8.67) 64 (91.43) 70 Short 40 (76.92) 12 (23.08) (28.85) 37 (71.) 12 (23.18) 40 (76.92) 30 (57.69) 22 (42.31) 52 Total 1 (82.14) (17.86) 50 90 (64.39) 22 (12.86) 118 (87.14) 68 (48.57) 72 (51.42) 140 (Figures in parentheses denote percentage) A study of data in table 4 indicates institutions duration wise electronic access mode availability in the libraries of selected self financing engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu. It could be noted that most of the long duration institutions (94.44) have OPAC, WEBOPAC ha ve in 10(55.56 %) of the libraries and only 4 (22.22%) libraries have subject gateways. In the case of medium duration institution and short duration institution libraries, OPAC is available in more than 75 percent of the libraries. But WEBOPAC is available only in (.71%) medium duration institution libraries and (28.85%) short duration institution libraries. The same result in the case of medium duration institution libraries out of 70 and 12 (23.18%) short duration institution libraries out of 52 have subject gateways. From the table, it could be observed that irrespective of the duration of the institutions all the libraries should develop WEBOPAC and subject gateways. Figure 2: Availability of Electronic Access Mode at Engineering Institution Libraries 4

Table 5: ANOVA (Two Way) test for Electronic Access Mode Vs Institutions ANOVA Summery Result ANOVA Source of Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit Rows 2789.333 2 1394.667 17.83678 0.000141 3.73889 Columns.333 7 450.7619 5.764921 0.002694 2.764196 Error 1094.667 14 78.19048 Total 7039.333 23 Source: Computed ANOVA two way model is applied for electronic access mode. At one point, the computed ANOVA value is 17.83 which is greater than its tabulated value at 5 percent level of significance. Hence variation with respect to possession of electronic access modes in the libraries is statistically identified as significant. At another point the computed ANOVA value is 5.76 which is greater than its tabulated value at 5 percent level of significance. Hence, the duration wise variation among the institutions is statistically identified as significant with respect to availability of electronic access modes in the libraries of the selected self financing engineering institutions. 9. CONCLUSION More number of libraries subscribes to e-journals and e-books and few libraries have online database and CD ROM database collection. Most of the libraries ha ve internet facility in their premises. Majority of the institution libraries have OPAC. Contrastingly they are in the process of developing WEBOPAC, subject gateways and websites. REFERENCES [1] Asemi, Asefeh and Riyahiniya, Nosrat, (2007) Awareness and use of digital resources in the libraries of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. (3), The Electronic Library. 316-327. [2] Parameshwar,S., & Patil, D.B., (2009). Use of the Internet by Faculty and Research scholars at Gulbarga University Library. Library Philosophy and Practice. From<http://digitalcommon.unl.edu/libphilprac/2 78> [3] Umesh Kumar Agarwal, & Rajesh Kumar Dave (2009). Use of Internet by the Scientists of CAZRI: A survey. Indian Journal of Library and Information Science. January-Aprij 3(1).2009 [4] Govindaraju, Nemani., Use and user awareness of E-resources in Andhra University library: A study. PEARL: A journal of Library and Information Science, 4(3), 183-188. 2010. [5] Kattimani, ParasuramS & Kamble, V.T., Awareness of Internet and Online Information Resources: A study. PEARL: A Journal of Library and Information Science, 4(3), 147-0. 2010. 426