Abstract:
The objective of this case study was to explore the use of online
databases, user perception towards online databases, user
satisfaction with facilities provided by the library for using bnline
resources. The participants of the user survey were dawn from
four categories of the University; academic staff members,
postgraduate students, undergraduate students and students of
Institute of Technology - University of Moratuwa (TTUM) . Total
of 400 participants were selected for the survey. Analysis
confirmed that frequency of use of electronic databases have
been restricted only to few data bases (Blackwell Synergy,
Science Direct and Wiley Inter Science). Relatively a lesser usage
level was observed for the online journals compared to print
journals. User groups have satisfied with the programmes
conducted for promoting online resources. They have highlighted
different areas that should be improved by the library. Providing
printing facility and offering remote access facility were main
requests of the users. Academic members and postgraduate
students had higher online resource usage than the
undergraduate students and ITUM students. The major problems
examined within the study included, lack of computer and
Internet facilities, lack of awareness to electronic resources
provided by the library, ineffective communication channels, and
irrelevancy of articles in the provided databases and inefficient
support of the library.
