Factors affecting undergraduates’ selection of online library resources in academic tasks. Usefulness, ease-of-use, resource quality, and individual differences
| Pages | 272-291 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2015-0008 |
| Published date | 15 June 2015 |
| Date | 15 June 2015 |
| Author | Soohyung Joo,Namjoo Choi |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Factors affecting undergraduates’
selection of online library
resources in academic tasks
Usefulness, ease-of-use, resource quality,
and individual differences
Soohyung Joo and Namjoo Choi
School of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington,
Kentucky, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore multiple factors affecting online library resource
selection by undergraduate students. Three dimensions of factors are investigated including
usefulness and ease-of-use, resource quality, and individual differences.
Design/methodology/approach –An instrument was developed to measure various aspect factors
and online library resource use intention. A survey was administered to 332 undergraduate students.
Quantitative analysis, including structural equation modeling, ANOVA, and t-tests, was used to
statistically examine the effects of the identified 11 factors on the use intention of online library
resources.
Findings –The findings indicated that both usefulness and ease-of-use positively influenced
the undergraduates’use intention of online libra ry resources. Also, five re source quality
constructs –accessibility, credibility, coverage, currency, and format –were the determinants
of online library resources use intention. Interestingly, the effect of accessibility was the strongest,
while that of credibility was the weakest. In addition, this study found that familiarity with sources
and use of good search skills had a significant effect on users’use intention at the individual
user level.
Originality/value –This study is one of the few studies investigatin g multiple factors
comprehensively that influence online library resource selection.
Keywords User studies, Library users, Electronic resources, Academic libraries
Paper type Research Paper
Introduction
Undergraduate students represent a new generation of users called the “digital
natives.”They are individuals who have grown up with access to computers their
whole lives, and therefore are very comfortable using information from online sources
(Connaway et al., 2008; Zimerman, 2012). Accordingly, modern-day undergraduates
prefer and use online sources more than traditional printed materials (Lee et al., 2012).
Among different online resources, undergraduate students prefer to use easily
accessible web sources via search engines rather than library sources (e.g. Kim and Sin,
2011; Haglund and Olsson, 2008; Selwyn, 2008). However, those easily accessible web
sources are not necessarily credible and reliable. Previous studies claimed that
resources provided by academic libraries are more credible and accurate than easily
accessible web information (Rieh and Hilligoss, 2007; Lee et al., 2012). Although
undergraduate students perceive online library resources to be more reliable, they still
prefer to use search engines to quickly find information needed for completing their
classwork (Connaway et al., 2011).
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 33 No. 2, 2015
pp. 272-291
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-01-2015-0008
Received 29 January 2015
Revised 16 March 2015
Accepted 5 April 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
272
LHT
33,2
The heavy reliance on web search engines and easy-to-access sources for
undergraduates can be problematic in an academic setting, where class assignments
and research require a variety of credible and accurate sources. To encourage college
students to use more reliable library resources, it is imperative to understand the
underlying reasons of their selection of online library resources. Understanding of
the factors associated to the selection of online library resources is critical to come up
with strategies to increase the library resource use by undergraduate studen ts,
who are a significant segment of user groups in academic libraries. In this study,
online library resources refer to library collections and materials provided in a
digital format accessible remotely through the web, such as e-books, electro nic journal
articles, online magazines, dissertations and theses, course reserves, and digital
archives. Traditional library resources, which are characterized by printed materials
such as books and printed journals, are quickly giving way to digitization tools
and online technologies.
This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of multiple factors that
influence the selection of online library resources by undergraduate students.
To be more specific, the authors undertook an empirical study to examine if the use
intention of online library resources could be explained by three groups of variables
pertaining to usefulness and ease-of-use, resource quality, and individual differences.
The unique contribution of this study lies in that it incorporates three dimensions
of factors simultaneously to understand reasons underlying undergraduates’online
library resources usage. Based on the findings, the authors also discuss
practical suggestions to encourage undergraduates to use library resources in their
academic tasks.
Literature review
The way undergraduate students select information resources has changed
dramatically in the last few decades. Current undergraduate students, also called
millennial students or digital natives, have used the internet from an early age and
are more technologically savvy than previous generations (Zimerman, 2012). The
internet has changed resource selection behaviors of those undergraduate students;
predominantly, they rely on the web, in particular search engines like Google, to find
their information. Students prefer using web search engines to libraries because of
their convenience, speed, and reliability, although they perceive library resources
to be accurate and credible (Holman, 2011). Many previous studies addressed the fact
that convenience and ease-of-use are considered the key factors in undergraduates’
resource selection. In Haglund and Olsson’s (2008) study, undergraduate students
themselves identified as “lazy”and prioritized convenience in their information
selection decisions. The preference of convenience and ease-of-use in selecting
information led undergraduate students to rely on internet sources searchable by
popular web search engines. According to Lee (2008), the web was the most popular
go-to source for information among college students, while academic library resources
came in second.
In particular, undergraduates, as the name “Google generation”implies, heavily rely
on Google. Connaway et al. (2011) claimed that not only was Google a popular search
tool among students, but they often thought of the web and Google interchangeably.
According to Griffiths and Brophy’s (2005) survey, approximately 45 percent of
students used Google for their initial searches, while about 55 percent never used
library bibliographic databases. Connaway et al. (2011) affirmed that convenience was
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Factors
affecting
undergraduates’
selection
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