Organising e‐journals from the point of view of humanities: a case study at the University of Parma

Abstract

Purpose -Research was carried out at the University of Parma with the purpose to investigate the organisation of e-journal titles from a user viewpoint, in order to find out what influence the approach adopted by the library may have on the use of e-journals and what characteristics the organisation of e-journals should have to enable an easy discovery of resources. Design/methodology/approach -The case study involved students, faculty members and library staff in classics and medieval studies. Research methodology comprised a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach: a focus group, observations, interviews, and a questionnaire. Findings -The group of users appeared still reluctant to use e-journals, the main barriers to use being lack of awareness and limited number of relevant resources. Users were favourable to being provided with multiple points of access to e-journals. Their preference appeared to be based on the familiarity of the method and similarity to the organisation of their physical library. The organisation of e-journals adopted at Parma had the potential to meet the users' expectations, but its actual implementation seemed to require more effective promotion and user-centred design. Originality/value -This paper may prove useful to humanities librarians engaged in providing user effective organisation of e-journals and in encouraging researchers and students to use electronic journals.

Factors influencing the behaviour of academics towards peer-reviewed electronic journals in Zimbabwean state universities

“…About 13.5% (twenty-six) of academics cited this as a major barrier, 55.4% (107) cited it as a minor barrier, and 31.1% (sixty) indicated that this was not a barrier. These results mirror those of researchers such as Bevilacqua (2005), Salaam and Aderibidge (2010) and Shahmohammadi (2012) who reported that the issue of off-campus accessibility is still a concern, especially in developing country universities. Academics from University A and University B complained about challenges with off-campus access more than those from University C. At University A, 21.8% (fifteen) cited challenges with off-campus access as a major barrier to their use of electronic journals.…”

“…They have been trying to establish why university communities, especially in Africa, have not embraced use of the electronic resources as expected. Findings have varied and have included issues of awareness (Bayugo and Agbeko 2007, Dilek-Kayaoglu 2008, Khan and Ahmad 2009, Salaam and Aderibidge 2010, Shahmohammadi 2012, attitudes and perceptions (De Groote 2008, Salaam and Aderibidge 2010, Tyagi 2012, promotion (Thanuskodi 2011, Vasishta andNavivoti 2011), and facilitating conditions as factors that influence the use of these resources (Ondari-Okemwa 2004, Bevilacqua 2005, Upadhyay and Chakraborty 2008, Salaam and Aderibidge 2010, Shahmohammadi 2012. Among the factors affecting electronic journals usage in universities, the issue of facilitating conditions has been prominent, especially in the context of developing countries.…”

“…The theories of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen 1991, Taylor andTodd 1995), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) (Moore and Benbasat 1991, Orr 2003, Rogers 2003 and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al 2003) have all identified facilitating conditions as a major factor influencing the use of electronic resources. Other factors influencing the behaviour of users towards electronic journals include infrastructure to support access, efficiency and speed of internet connection, skills to navigate the electronic environment, availability of off-campus access, user-friendliness of university libraries' website interfaces and specific journal interfaces (Ondari-Okemwa 2004, Bevilacqua 2005, Upadhyay and Chakraborty 2008, Salaam and Aderibidge 2010, Shahmohammadi 2012.…”

What do the business employers want? A sequential mixed methods exploration of information professionals’ competencies

“…A smaller sample is considered enough for generating reliable results in qualitative studies, as compared to the quantitative. Previously, researchers conducted qualitative focus group studies on a sample comprising five respondents (Bevilacqua, 2005;Duncan Adrian St and Durrant, 2015); and seven (Ollé and Borrego, 2010). Moreover, 21 company managers were sampled for the quantitative data collection.…”

A selective review of research on e‐resource usage in academic libraries

“…The researchers from humanities are less inclined to use e‐journals. The main barriers are lack of awareness and less number of journals in the field of humanities (Bevilacqua, 2005). This is being contradicted by Brockman et al (2001) and the British Academy (2005) – their studies reveal that humanities and social science researchers actively used full‐text journals and newspapers, rare books, legal documents, digitized classical and literary texts.…”