Factors that influence the use of libray resources by faculty members

Abstract

To examine the use of library resources, focusing on e-sources, by the members of the faculty of a higher educational institute in Thessaloniki, Greece; to reveal the factors which influence the effective use of sources for academic duties; and to provide reliable information to both the administration and the library of the institute, with the aim of the improvement of library services.

Design/methodology/approach: A census survey, using a structured questionnaire, among the faculty of the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki was conducted to examine the frequency of use of resources, mainly e-sources, and to reveal the impact of demographic or academic situational characteristics, the assumed positive influence of academic productivity, perceived usefulness of resources and access to e-sources on the use of e-sources as well as the assumed negative influence of barriers and computer anxiety on the use of e-sources.

Findings: The great majority of the faculty of TEI uses printed sources more than e-sources, but they also use e-sources quite frequently. Use is mostly of books, websites and printed journals. It was also found that the use of e-sources is higher in the School of Business Administration and Economics among those who hold a PhD degree and among younger members of the faculty. Also, the results indicated that the use of e-sources is positively influenced by the respondents' perceived usefulness of resources, the convenience of access to the sources and their academic productivity. The examination of the computer anxiety rating scale (CARS) provided evidence that the less anxious the faculty feel about PCs, the more frequent users they become.

Research limitations/implications: Further research is needed to measure how faculty interact with information, what kind of electronic sources they prefer, what search strategies they use, as well as whether their information needs are satisfied. This research needs to be duplicated to other universities in Greece to determine whether the results can be generalized for Greek academic faculty.

Practical implications: University administrations need to improve library facilities, to include more workstations for access to electronic sources, as well as to improve the marketing and communication of these e-sources.

Originality/value: This research tries to fill a gap in the literature, which has underemphasized so far the need for assessing and measuring the use of library resources in Greek academic libraries and the examination of the factors that influence this use.