Information Studies
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Browsing Information Studies by Subject "Academic libraries--KwaZulu-Natal--Use studies."
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Item An investigation into the use of the Internet by students at St. Joseph's Theological Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.(2006) Shezi, Mhlukanisi Simon.; Leach, Athol Brian.; Ngulube, Patrick.The discussion of introducing the Internet at St. Joseph's Theological Institute in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa took place in 2002 and access to the Internet was introduced in 2003 via 70 computers which were housed in the library. Given that the Internet has emerged as an important learning tool at the tertiary level, the aim of the study was to investigate the use of the Internet by the students at St. Joseph's. The specific objectives of the study were as follows: to find out which students were using the Internet, to find out what students were using the Internet for, to find how often students used the Internet and when they used it, to find out the problems experienced by those students who used the Internet, to find out why certain students do not use the Internet, and lastly the study aimed to make recommendations concerning the use of the Internet by students. The survey research method was used and the data was collected through a self administered questionnaire. No sampling was done as the entire population of 188 students was surveyed. Sixty five students responded - a response rate of 34.6 %. Findings revealed that of the 65 students who completed the questionnaires 34 (52.3%) had used the Internet and 31 (47.6%) had not. Out of the 24 respondents who gave reasons for not having used the Internet, the majority 17 (70.8%) of respondents said that they had not received formal training and did not know how to use the Internet. The major problems facing the Internet users at St. Joseph 's were the shortage of computers mentioned by 13 (38.2%) respondents and computers being slow as indicated by 13 (38.2%) respondents. Six (17.6%) respondents also pointed to not having enough training in the use of Internet facilities. Recommendations concerning Internet use at the Institute were made and suggestions for further research put forward.Item Use of electronic databases by masters students in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus.(2010) Hadebe, Tusiwe Beverly.; Hoskins, Ruth Geraldine Melonie.The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of electronic databases by masters students in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus. The study tried to establish which electronic databases masters students used and how frequently they were used. In addition, the study investigated what the students used the electronic databases for and what problems they encountered while using these databases. A set of recommendations based on the findings were identified. The study population consisted of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences (HDSS) masters students. A total of 139 masters students responded, which was a response rate of 68%. The approach undertaken by the researcher was triangulation where both qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The instrument that the researcher employed as the quantitative method of data collection was the questionnaire and a focus group was used as the qualitative method of data collection. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS and the qualitative data was analysed using thematic content analysis. A pre-test of the questionnaire for the study was done on six registered masters students in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus (UKZNP) in order to identify any unclear issues in the questionnaire. The outcome of the study revealed that a majority of HDSS masters students at UKZNP did use the electronic databases. A number of problems were experienced when using the databases. The top three databases used by the masters students were EbscoHost , followed by SABINET and then ProQuest. Masters students mentioned some benefits of using the electronic databases. Students revealed that they became aware of the library databases from a variety of sources such as lecturers, friends and orientation programmes. There were other non-library databases that masters students used besides the library electronic databases. A majority of 75.2% of the students were satisfied with the library service.