Awareness and use of E-journals among
Students and Faculty of Parul Group of
Institutes: A Survey
Dr. Dhaval D. Bhatt
Chief Librarian
Parul Group of Institutes
At & Po. Limda, Ta: Waghodia, Dist. Vadodara-391760
(Gujarat) India
Email: dhavalben@gmail.com
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Advancement of E-journals during recent years has
given librarians a powerful new resource to support
learning and research.
Students and faculties are primary users of ejournals.
E-journals have revolutionized the research output.
This is a case study conducted to study the
awareness and use of e-journals.
About Parul Group of Institute,
Limda
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Parul Group of Institutes is a hub of 17 self-financed
institutes with three Homeopathic Medical Colleges, two
Engineering Colleges, two Polytechnics, two Pharmacy
colleges, MCA & MBA programs, an institute of Post
Graduate Diploma in Management and Post Graduate
courses for Engineering streams.
More than 2000 faculty members impart knowledge.
Apart from Vadodara, affiliated institutes are located in
Ahmedabad and Rajkot.
“GYANODAY BHAVAN” (Central Library)
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Library was established in 2003 with a collection of 4000
books.
Compared to other libraries in this region it is still in initial
stage of development.
Presently the total collection comprises of 1,26,500+
books, 900+ journals which is housed in 10 branch libraries
within the campus.
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Library provides E-Resources
IEEE Link
Info track Engg Link
 Info track Pharmacy Link
 Info track Management Link
 DELNET resources
 Subscribed NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced
Learning)
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(http://nptel.iitm.ac.in)
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provides E-Learning through curriculum based online web and video courses
in Engineering, Science and Humanities
Objectives of the Study
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To ascertain the awareness of users about available E-journals.
To find out the frequency of using E-journals.
To study the purpose of using E-journals.
To study the linking pattern of E-journals and use pattern for storage.
To study the preferred format for using E-journals.
To know the Barriers of accessing E-journals.
To study the satisfaction level of users accessing of E-journals.
To study the sufficiency of no. of E-journals available related to their
discipline/subject.
To suggest suitable enhancement of E-journals facility.
To study the benefits of using the E-journals.
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Study has been carried out using questionnaire
based survey method.
informal interviews were also conducted along with
observations.
660 questionnaires were distributed among
students and faculties.
612 questionnaires were received 92.72%
response.
Analysis
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Out of 612 questionnaires received back, 84.15% were students and only
15.85% respondents were faculty members.
64.66% of the students belonged to UG courses; 17.67% were in PG courses
and 17.67% were in Diploma courses.
59.48% respondents were aware about the E-journals whereas 40.52% of
respondents were not aware at all.
25.16% respondents wanted to access only electronic version of journals
whereas only 14.06% wanted both electronic and print journals.
Majority of the respondents - 58.17% had less than 2 hours of access to
internet whereas 21.73% respondents had more than 2-3 hours of internet
access.
Analysis ….. contd
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39.22% respondents used E-journals once in a week, 23.03% used twice a week,
19.77% respondents’ were using Daily and some of them 12.91% used thrice a
week.
55.23% used E-journals for studying their course work, 35.95% respondents used
E-journals for updating subject knowledge, 22.22% used them for research work
and 9.64% used for writing papers and 9.97% respondents use for updating their
teaching skills.
37.25% respondents chose Home to access E-journals, 28.92% of the respondents
preferred central library, 28.59% accessed from the Department, 14.38%
accessed at the computer center and 5.56% accessed from other places from
wherever they got facility .
50% used search engines, 34.15% searched E-journals through websites, followed
by 16.83% through IEEE Link, 8.33% search E-journals through DELNET and 3.27%
search through Info track Engg Link and 2.12% through Info track Pharmacy Link.
Analysis ….. contd
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58.33% of respondents browsed after going through contents, 33.50%
downloaded content into storage devices and 13.73% of respondents took
printouts of E-journals
51.14% respondents preferred PDF format for using e-journals, whereas
39.05% had no preference at all and 12.75% of respondents preferred HTML
format.
50.33% of respondents are satisfied to some extent, 34.31% respondents are
fully satisfied. Only 8.50% users were highly satisfied and 6.86% respondents
were dissatisfied .
Analysis ….. contd
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26.63% respondents are not using E-journals because of slow
speed in downloading, 23.37% respondents are not familiar to
E-journals, 17.16% respondents felt it time consuming; 15.36%
did not use due to lack of training and 11.27% respondents
because of insufficient number of E-journals in their subject.
8.99% because of lack of assistance from the information
professionals, as they accessed from computer centre. 8.01%
respondents because of unavailability of terminals in library
and 6.54% respondents felt inadequate coverage in their area
of research.
54.51% respondents felt the need of training programme,
23.53% required management’s assistance for using E-journals.
10.29% wanted UPS.
Suggestions received
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E-journals should be accessible from any place
Should be user friendly
Internet needs to be speedy
Accessibility should be easy
Quantitative coverage of International Journals
Training programs for users need to be frequently organized
Subject wise list of E-journals required
Internet facility should be expanded in all departmental libraries.
Recommendations
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Awareness should be created for use of e-resources
To increase interest among users e-content should be mailed
Library homepage should provide direct link to publisher’s URLs to
save hassle of remembering password or URL.
Workshops/seminars/lectures should be arranged in every
department from time to time.
Library staff should the users help in overcoming the technical
difficulties faced while using E-journals.
Subscription of more full text version of online packages to be
considered.
Conclusion
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E-journals have opened up opportunities and potentials for academic
libraries. It is on the part of the library staff to create more awareness
about the E-journals availability among the users and provide them a
friendly environment so that they can make better use of the facility
Save the time of users. Survey portrays Lack of training among users.
This study will help librarian to convey importance of E-journals to
the authority and to improve the services related to E-journals.
Thank You