Assessing the Impacts and Benefits of Using Electronic Resources in Ethiopian Public Higher Learning Institutions

Abstract

Electronic resources are becoming an integral part of the modern life and of the educational scene, especially the high education scene. Technology imposes its own impact on different sectors. University is one of these sectors. The collections of universities hard copy have been integrated with electronic 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 Universities to provide the service and to use the resources. The aim of this research is to assess the impacts and benefits of using electronic resource in Ethiopian Public Higher Learning Institutions. The methodology employed to conduct this study was survey research design and the respondents, drawn from three EPHLI universities, (i.e., Jimma University, Addis Ababa and Mizan Tepi University) comprised of librarians, ICT professionals, students and staffs. Simple random sampling method was used to select samples from study population and a purposive sampling method was used to select study areas and samples for interview. Data for the study was collected through questionnaire, semi-standardized face-to-face interview and observation. The result of the study revealed that, 70.0% have agreed good computer skill to use e-resources and also 73.0% prefer and use different electronic information resources but 81.7% of do not have any training how to use electronic information resources. And also 81.8% agreed electronic resources support teaching learning process. There is no equal distribution of eresource among university. Awareness creation and information literacy skill should be provided for academic staffs to improve the usability of electronic information resources. The capacity and bandwidth of Internet, equal distribution of e-resource among university should be improved and also ICT man power to overcome the problem of managing e-resources.