Technology acceptance models or theories are commonly used in studies aiming at predicting and explaining the individual behaviours towards the acceptance and usage of new technologies. This paper reports part of the findings from a doctoral research project which focused at analysing the acceptance and usage of open access within public universities in Tanzania. The study was guided by the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Usage (UTAUT) model). The survey questionnaire targeted 544 respondents selected through stratified random sampling from a population of 1088 university researchers at six public universities in Tanzania. A response rate of 73 percent was achieved and the binary logistic regression statistics of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The study findings suggest support for the application of the UTAUT model in studying the adoption of open access in a research environment. Among the findings, attitude, awareness, effort expectancy and performance expectancy were established as the key determinants for the researchers' behavioural intentions of open access usage. Similarly, age, awareness, behavioural intention, facilitating conditions and social influence were found to significantly affect researchers' actual usage of open access. These factors should therefore be taken into account in the planning and implementation of open access projects. A further validation of the open access research model in similar research institutions in Tanzania and elsewhere is recommended. The UTAUT model has proved suitable in guiding an understanding of the factors that contribute to the acceptance and usage of open access by researchers in Tanzania.

This research explored the awareness, usage and perspectives of Tanzanian researchers on open access as a mode of scholarly communication. A survey questionnaire targeted 544 respondents selected through stratified random sampling from a population of 1088 university researchers of the six public universities in Tanzania. With a response rate of 73%, the data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study reveals that the majority of the researchers were aware of and were positive towards open access. Findings further indicate that the majority of researchers in Tanzanian public universities used open access outlets more to access scholarly content than to disseminate their own research findings. It seems that most of these researchers would support open access publishing more if issues of recognition, quality and ownership were resolved. Thus many of them supported the idea of establishing institutional repositories at their respective universities as a way of improving the dissemination of local content. The study recommends that public universities and other research institutions in the country should consider establishing institutional repositories, with appropriate quality assurance measures, to improve the dissemination of research output emanating from these institutions.

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University library administrators in Sri Lanka have begun to search for alternative ways to satisfy their clientele on the basis of service quality. This article aims at providing a theoretical model to facilitate the identification of service quality attributes and domains that may be used to predict customer satisfaction from a service quality perspective. The effectiveness of existing service quality models such as LibQUAL, SERVQUAL and SERVPREF have been questioned. In that regard, this study developed a theoretical model for academic libraries in Sri Lanka based on the disconfirmation and performance-only paradigms. These perspectives were considered by researchers to be the core mechanism to develop service quality/customer satisfaction models. The attributes and domain identification of service quality was carried out with a stratified sample of 263 participants selected from postgraduate and undergraduate students and academic staff members from the faculties of Arts in four universities in Sri Lanka. The study established that responsiveness, supportiveness, building environment, collection and access, furniture and facilities, technology, Web services and service delivery were quality domains which can be used to predict customer satisfaction. The theoretical model is unique in its domain structure compared to the existing models. The model needs to be statistically tested to make it valid and parsimonious

This paper discusses the appropriateness of Diffusion of Innovations (Dol) Theory as a platform for explaining aspects of information and communication technology (lCT) innovation adoption process in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The discussion is based on literature review of the theory's application, plus the experience and findings of two recently completed doctoral research projects on ICTs, at the University of Zululand, in which the theory was applied. The Dol theory is essentially a social process in which subjectively perceived information about a new idea is communicated. The theory rests on the premise that a new idea, practice or object has perceivable channels, time and mode of being adopted by individuals or organisations. In recent years, the theory has widely been used I IntroductionThe aim of this paper is to describe how the Diffusion of Innovation theory (Dol) has been incorporated in Library and Information Science (LIS) research. The theory was used in two recent studies (Minishi-Majanja, 2004;Kiplang'at, 2004). The purpose of the first study was to investigate the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the communication of agricultural information among agricultural researchers and extension workers in Kenya (Kiplang'at 2004). In particular, the study focused on the public agricultural sector and covered the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARl) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD). It sought to map and audit ICTs in the public agricultural sector in Kenya, establish their nature, types, distribution and extent of use in communication of agricultural information. It assessed the demand and use of ICTs by agricultural researchers and extension workers in their knowledge acquisition and dissemination process. The second study, which aimed to map and audit information and communication technologies (ICTs) in LIS education in sub-Saharan Africa, was conducted against a backdrop of ICTs in higher education, sought to find out the nature and types of .ICT knowledge, skills and resources that have been incorporated in LIS education in sub-Saharan Africa (Minishi-Majanja 2004). The aim and objectives of the said study suggested conceptual and theoretical frameworks consisting of technological (ICTs) adoption and educational innovation. It was found pertinent to address both hard and soft technologies and examine the effect of technological developments on LIS education. Technological adoption, in the case of LIS was perceived in the forms of soft technology, i.e. innovative ideas and practices, and hard technology, i.e. the ICT products that have transformed both the LIS workplace and hence the education and training for that changed workplace. Educational innovation was found to overlap technological adoption because of the influence of technology on both educational content and educational methods. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory was considered a suitable framework because of its potential application to infor...