Factors affecting usage of e-resources: scale development and validation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-07-2016-0104 |
| Date | 16 January 2017 |
| Published date | 16 January 2017 |
| Pages | 64-75 |
| Author | Ruchi Jain Garg,Vinod Kumar, Vandana |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Factors affecting usage of
e-resources: scale development
and validation
Ruchi Jain Garg
School of Business, ITM University, Gwalior, India
Vinod Kumar
Department of Marketing, International Management Institute,
New Delhi, India, and
Vandana
Department of Management, New Delhi Institute of Management,
New Delhi, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale involving the factors affecting usage
of e-resources.
Design/methodology/approach –The present study identifies five factors affecting the usage of
e-resources: training modes, awareness, influencers, utilitarian benefits, and experiential and hedonic benefits.
To generate measurement items, two focus group discussions were carried out which resulted in 20 items.
To empirically ensure reliability and validity of scale, data were collected from 347 postgraduate students
actively using e-resources. To test reliability of scale, internal consistency reliability and construct reliability
were examined. The construct validity of scale (which includes convergent validity and discriminant validity)
was verified through confirmatory factor analysis using structure equation modeling.
Findings –Findings of the study present a statistically reliable and valid scale consisting of five factors and
18 items.
Originality/value –The present study is one of the distinctive studies on introducing a scale employing
factors affecting usage of e-resources.
Keywords Digital library, Scale development, Scale validation, B-schools, E-resources, Scale reliability
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The library is a very important source for promoting education and research in an
institution (Rani and Zainab, 2006). It contains and preserves print and electronic resources
of knowledge. Print resources are conventional resources available in hard bound form;
whereas, electronic resources (e-resources) provide published information in digital form.
Saye (2001) has defilned e-resources as “the resources that are generated through some
electronic medium and made available to a wide range of viewers both on-site and off-site
via some electronic transferring machine or internet.”
With the growth of information technology, the use of e-resources has increased.
Previous studies have also revealed that e-resources are getting popular and used more than
print resources for academic purposes (Urquhart et al., 2003; Borrego et al., 2007).
E-resources have been found to be handy when accessing information (Fortini, 2007;
Wu and Chen, 2012). Indeed, e-resources have either complemented or replaced many print
resources in traditional libraries ( Joo and Lee, 2011).
Though prior studies have investigated the usage of e-resources, only limited attention
has been paid to identifying the factors affecting usage of e-resources yet. This paper
explores the factors affecting usage of e-resource usage and develops an instrument using
these factors. The factors affecting e-resource usage were first identified through an
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 69 No. 1, 2017
pp. 64-75
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-07-2016-0104
Received 22 July 2016
Revised 24 October 2016
Accepted 2 December 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
64
AJIM
69,1
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