Assessment of Electronic Information Resources for Academic Staffs` Access and Usage in Jimma University Library System

Abstract

Technology imposes its own impact on different sectors. Library is one of these sectors. The collection of library hard copy have been integrated with electronic information resources. The services are also provided through network infrastructure remotely. The users of information resources access the resources from wherever and whenever they are interested to do so. These resources required additional infrastructure and skill of the librarians and users to provide the service and to use the resource. The aim of this research is to Assess Electronic Information Resources for academic staffs’ access and usage in Jimma University Library System. This research used quantitative and qualitative data and the data collected through questionnaires and interview to answer the question of usage of electronic information resource. The research area is Jimma University and the population of the study includes 773 academic staffs and librarians. 256 sampls are extracted from the academic staffs and two librarians selected as representative. Stratified random sampling is used to extract the sample that represents the population of the study. The result of the study revealed that, 82.25% academic staffs prefer and use different electronic information resources but 81.7% of academic staffs do not have any training how to use electronic information resources. There is no access in the library as a result 87.63 % of the respondents accessed electronic information resources from their offices. Awareness creation and information literacy skill should be provided for academic staffs to improve the usability of electronic information resources. The capacity of Internet should be improved and generator also installed to overcome the problem of infrastructure.