Abstract:
Low awareness of the Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) by the university library
users were identified by number of Sri Lankan researchers. While there are ample
numbers of studies on the e-resource usage by the university undergraduates, there is
dearth of literature available on the undergraduates of Faculty of Islamic Studies and
Arabic Languages undergraduates (FIA) at South Eastern University of Sri Lanka
(SEUSL). This research sets out to study the usage and awareness about the EIRs by the
undergraduate students of FIA, at SEUSL. The study is based on a questionnaire survey.
Printed structured questionnaires were administered among 164 randomly selected
undergraduate students of the FIA, drawing 15% sample of the total students of the
faculty. The study established that to the certain extent the students are aware of the
availability of EIRs. In total, 46% of first year and second year students are of the
opinion that EIRs are not significant to their studies. 21% Final year students had
accessed EIRs to find information in order to write their project reports, dissertations and
assignments. E-articles (From Google Scholar particularly), E-databases and EIRs from
Institutional Repositories (IRs) were among the top three EIRs final year students
frequently used. Web sites, friends, library staff and lecturing staff were the main
sources of information on EIRs. Out of the 28% of final year student who have used
EIRs for their academic work, 19% had indicated that access to EIRs was learned by
themselves by trial and error method. The study leads to the conclusion that majority of
the users were not aware of the EIRs offered by the library. Possible suggestions are to
upgrade facilities to use EIRs, and to provide more publicity to improve the usage of
EIRs at university wide. It is also recommended to university libraries of Sri Lanka, in
general, to increase user training programmes. Advanced search strategies should be
included in these further trainings. It is vital to identify non-EIRs users. Selective
Dissemination of Information services and awareness programmes should be initiated
targeting them. Both library staff as well as university lecturing staff has a responsibility
in promoting EIRs among the undergraduate students. Introducing information literacy
skills across the university undergraduate curriculum and assigning coursework to use
library EIRs would be beneficial. Outcomes of the research would be particularly of use
to the library administration in planning library orientation programmes and workshops
and when designing and planning library infrastructure to promote EIRs.
