The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Library (UNECA Library) has a
collection of more than 90,000 electronic information resources and half a million-print
collection. These resources are available freely to staff members of the UNECA, United
Nations agencies, diplomats, researchers, students and others. The study investigated
the utilisation of electronic information resources and the challenges faced by the
different users of the Library. A quantitative research approach with a survey research
method was applied. The population for the study was 600 users,, out of which 500
were internal users (UNECA and United Nations agencies staff members) and 100
were external users (researchers, students, or non-staff members). From the
population, 20% from each category, that is, 120 users were taken as a sample. A webbased questionnaire built on SurveyMonkey was distributed through email to collect
data from randomly selected users. The total response rate was 74%. The data were
analysed using built in survey monkey analysis software and reported with simple
frequency and percentages. The results shows that 92% of the respondents were
aware of the availability of the electronic information resources in the UNECA Library.
TInstitutional Repository (IR) and e-journals were frequently accessed and utilised.
Highly accessed and utilised databases were the Economist, African Journal Online,
JSTOR, Ebscohost, ScienceDirect, and Financial Times. 94% of the respondents
reported that the electronic information resources were useful, with 84% agreeing that
the resources were easy to use. High numbers of the respondents positively agreed
that the quality of their output was improved by using the electronic information
resources provided by the library. The respondents also indicated that using the
electronic information resources have improved their research output, and overall, the
resources have increased their performances. The challenges were information
overload, access restriction with IP address, lack of training and remembering login
credentials. 68% of the users reported that the library services met their expectations.
The study recommends the development of strategies for enhancing accessibility and
discoverability of the resources, providing information literacy trainings for all users,
and finding alternative measures for IP restriction access. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/26564 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Frehiwot Fekadeselassie Dubale |
| Contributors | Nwagwu, W. E., Schellnack-Kelly, Isabel |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
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