Acceptance of E-Resources by the Medical Researchers of ...

Journal of Information & Knowledge Management, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2014) 1450012 (9 pages)

#.c World Scienti¯c Publishing Co.

DOI: 10.1142/S0219649214500129

Acceptance of E-Resources by the Medical Researchers of
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)

Md. Abul Kalam Siddike* and Md. Shiful Islam†
Department of Information Science and Library Management

University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
*[email protected]
†[email protected]

J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com Published 6 June 2014
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only.
Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to describe the ac- e-resources is mainly due to their tremendous bene¯ts to
ceptance of e-resources by the medical researchers of Interna- organisations and individuals for e®ectively and e±ciently
tional Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh performing their work (Jacobs et al., 2005; Agnew et al.,
(ICDDR,B) and its objective is to explore the tendency and 2006). E-resources and services refer to the variety of
frequency of using e-resources by them. Also, this article inves- electronic and digital sources of information available to
tigates the purposes, impact, in°uential factors and barriers of teachers and learners within an academic context (Swain
using e-resources by the medical researchers of ICDDR,B. A and Panda, 2009). Electronic information resources in-
survey has been conducted by using a short and well-structured clude CD-ROMs and resources available on the internet,
questionnaire that was distributed among 120 medical such as e-journals, e-prints, and other computer-based
researchers in ICDDR,B. We received 96 questionnaires duly networks (Tsakonas and Papatheodorou, 2006). E-
¯lled up by the respondents with a response rate of 79.99%. The resources have been de¯ned as, information accessed by a
gathered data have been analysed and presented using the de- computer, may be useful as bibliographic guides to po-
scriptive analysis techniques of SPSS 20.0. Findings show that tential sources but, as of yet, they infrequently appear as
the medical researchers of ICDDR,B show positive attitude to- cited references in their own right (Graham, 2003).
wards using e-resources, and researchers use e-resources fre-
quently. Results also indicate that e-resources are very useful to Bangladesh — o±cially the People's Republic of Ban-
the medical researchers, and MEDLINE is the most used data- gladesh is a country in South Asia. It is surrounded by
base among the medical researchers of ICDDR,B. The study is India on all sides except for a small border with Myanmar
based on only ICDDR,B and does not cover all medical (public to the far southeast and the Bay of Bengal to the south
and private) institutions of Bangladesh. Therefore, further (Internet World Stats, 2010). International Centre for
studies would be carried out covering public and private medical Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) was
institutions in Bangladesh. established in 1978 as successor to the Cholera Research
Laboratory created in 1960 to study the epidemiology,
Keywords: Electronic resources; databases; medical researchers; treatment and prevention of cholera. The Centre is an
ICDDR,B; Bangladesh. independent, international, non-pro¯t organisation for
research, education, training, clinical services and infor-
1. Introduction and Background mation dissemination. The Centre is the only truly inter-
national health research institution based in a developing
Electronic resources (e-resources) and services have be- country (ICDDR,B, 2012a).
come the most popular tools for research and academic
activities. With the rapid development of information and The Library and Information Services Unit (LISU) of
communication technologies (ICT), e-resources are in- the ICDDR,B, established in 1962, has grown over the
creasingly becoming readily available and easily accessible
(Zhang et al., 2004; Prabha, 2007). The popularity of

*Corresponding author.

1450012-1

M. A. K. Siddike and M. S. Islam

J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com years to be one of the best medical libraries in the region automation era as far as libraries and information centres
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only. (ICDDR,B, 2012b). The library has a collection of over in Bangladesh are concerned. The library of ICDDR,B is
45,500 volumes of bound journals and books (journals using the most advanced tools of the new information
nearly 75%), over 15,000 reprints and documents, and technology for supporting the medical scientists and
about 375 current journals hard copies and around 20,000 researchers of Bangladesh as well as the whole world. It is
online journals and databases facilities. The library also worth of mentioning that ICDDR,B is an international
receives a good number of newsletters. The library col- health research institution in Bangladesh.
lection is growing at a rate of about 1000–1200 volumes of
books and bound journals per year. The items cover 2. Literature Review
mainly the subjects of the Centre's research interests. The
book collection generally consists of books, monographs, Several researches have been carried out on the use of
institutional reports, conference proceedings, etc. which e-resources in academic, business and information tech-
are arranged according to a classi¯cation system (National nology (IT) universities throughout the globe (Swain and
Library of Medicine and Library of Congress Classi¯cation Panda, 2009; Deng, 2010; Gupta, 2011; Madhusudhan,
Schemes), so that items on the same or related subjects 2010; Oduwole and Oyewumi, 2010; Tahir et al., 2010;
can generally be found together. The reference collection Zhang and Liu, 2011). They focused on awareness, cur-
consists mainly of important textbooks, dictionaries, rent status, frequency, purposes, satisfaction, problems
manuals, handbooks, directories, encyclopaedias, etc. and encountered while using e-resources and recommenda-
can only be used in the library. The journal collection tions for e®ective use of e-resources. Deng (2010) ex-
consists of current journals arranged alphabetically by plored the pattern and trend of accessing and using
title on the display shelves and bound journals arranged e-resources in a university library in Australia. He
alphabetically by title on the shelves of the journal section. showed that the use of e-resources is very much depen-
The online collection consists of subscribed journals with dent on the user and the purposes of using e-resources. He
their hard copies, JSTOR, Bangladesh, INASP PERI also revealed that the awareness and the quality of the
consortium, ISI web of knowledge, Travex and mutual available e-resources are the two important factors for
agreement with HINARI, AGORA, OARE, etc. The e®ective and e±cient use of e-resources. Similarly, Tahir
reprints and documents collection consists of reprints, et al. (2010) conducted a study on use of electronic in-
documents, reports, book chapters, etc. which are ar- formation resources and facilities by humanities scholars
ranged by accession numbers and stored in the ¯le cabi- at the University of the Punjab, Pakistan and showed
nets. In addition, the library has been developing the that e-resources have a great impact on the information-
digital repository of ICDDR,B using DSpace software. seeking behaviour of the humanities. They revealed that
Research projects/protocols of ICDDR,B, manuscripts humanities scholars faced many problems in retrieving
and published articles in other international journals, and using e-resources but their work has become easier
book chapters, conference papers, etc. are being uploaded with technology. Madhusudhan (2010) showed that
in this system (ICDDR,B, 2012c). The following services e-resources have become an integral part of the infor-
are available from the library: (a) borrowing and circula- mation needs of research scholars at Kurukshetra Uni-
tion service; (b) reprints service; (c) photocopying service; versity, India and found that e-resources can be good
(d) guidance service; (e) reference and bibliographic ser- substitutes for conventional resources, if the access is
vices; (f) internet service; and (g) inter-library loan ser- fast, and more computer terminals are installed to pro-
vice. The library has membership facilities for outside vide fast access to e-resources. He reported that e-
users (ICDDR,B, 2012d). LISU o®ers and organises a resources are easy to use and time saving. Moreover, e-
highly practical-oriented, intensive training programme resources provide faster and reliable communication as
on information management of various durations for well as wide range of information (Kumar and Kumar,
outside personnel having certi¯cate, diploma or master's 2008). On the other hand, there are some barriers of using
degree in library and information science (ICDDR,B, e-resources. Ali (2005) and Dadzie (2005) identi¯ed the
2012e). The library is operated by eight sta® including following barriers of using e-resources: (1) lack of
a senior manager, a senior administrative o±cer, a man- knowledge about e-resources; (2) lack of guidance or
ager, a senior information o±cer, an information o±cer, training in using e-resources; (3) lack of information
an administrative o±cer, an information assistant and about how to use of e-resources; (4) lack of time to re-
an attendant (ICDDR,B, 2012f). According to Ahmed quire skills for using e-resources; (5) lack of slow down-
(1998), the 1980s are considered the beginning of the loading; (6) lack of trained library personnel.

1450012-2

Acceptance of E-Resources by the Medical Researchers of ICDDR,B

E-resources have played a vital role and changed the the other hand, Mostofa (2013) conducted a study on use
way of seeking and disseminating information for research and impact of e-resources in three private universities in
scholars (Madhusudhan, 2010). Electronic journals have Bangladesh. He found that majority of the students
become indispensable for scientists and social scientists, (24.24%) prefer to use e-theses, followed by e-books,
and have a profound e®ect on information behaviour e-newspapers, e-magazines and so on. But in perspective
(Voorbij and Ongering, 2006). Al-Baridi and Ahmed of using e-resources in medical sectors, no attempt has
(2000) highlighted the use of the King Fahd University of been made by any researchers. Therefore, this study
Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) library web site and attempts to describe the acceptance of e-resources by the
internet to enhance the library collection, expand services, medical researchers in ICDDR,B.
and improve operations to provide access to a growing
array of internal and external e-resources. Users are using 3. Aims and Objectives
the e-resources for research and study and for keeping
J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com abreast with new developments in their areas of interest In Bangladesh, ICDDR,B library is the pioneer of using
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only. (Ali, 2005). The internet seems to provide a new oppor- information and communication technology (ICT) facili-
tunity to overcome problems of access and provide clini- ties in libraries. Access to resources is now considered
cally appropriate information to practitioners. However, more important than collection building, especially if the
while use of the internet for clinical information has grown access is perpetual in nature. The e-resources facilitate the
substantially in recent years, a pilot study carried out in libraries to get the bene¯ts of large number of resources at
2000 suggested that problems of access, lack of skills, and an a®ordable cost and in minimal time. Moreover, the
applicability of information remained barriers to e®ective technology has changed expectations of researchers, their
use of the internet as a source of information in family patience, and their willingness to accept services that are
practice (Cullen, 2000). available on demand. The e-resources are the answer to
the expectations of the users. Many researchers abroad
From the point of view of Bangladesh, the most rele- have attempted to (predict or) measure the impact of
vant and recent works on e-resources have been conducted e-resources on research and scholarship through surveys.
by Habiba and Chowdhury (2012), Ahmed (2013) and In Bangladesh, very few attempts have been made so far
Mostofa (2013). Their studies are based on use of to study extensively the acceptance of e-resources by re-
e-resources in public and private university perspective. search scholars in medical libraries. Keeping in view the
Ahmed (2013) conducted study on use of e-resources by previous aspects, the present study has been taken up to
the faculty members in diverse public universities of know the current use of e-resources and its acceptance by
Bangladesh and showed that faculty members are not the research scholars, and also problems faced while
generally satis¯ed with the current level of university accessing these resources by the research scholars of
subscribed e-resources. The study identi¯ed limited num- ICDDR,B. The aim of this study is to describe the ac-
ber of titles, limited access to back issues, di±culty in ceptance of e-resources by the medical researchers of
¯nding information, inability to access from home, limited ICDDR,B. More particularly, the study has been designed
access to computers and slow download speed as major in order to ascertain the following objectives:
constraints. These constraints do a®ect e-resources use in
the public universities. However, these constraints are – To explore the frequency of using e-resources; using
mainly related to the poor IT infrastructure and limited – To investigate the purpose of using e-resources;
access to e-resources, which may also lead to other con- – To view the usefulness of using e-resources;
straints such as an unwillingness to use the resources – To identify the acceptance of e-resources;
regularly and consequently low satisfaction with such – To investigate the in°uential factors for
resources. Habiba and Chowdhury (2012) con¯rmed that
a large number of e-resources were made available in e-resources.
Dhaka University Library (DUL). They found that e-
resources in DUL are available and users are satis¯ed with 4. Methodology and the Sample
these materials. They also reported that, although DUL
lacks infrastructure facilities, the existing e-resources can It is surprising to state that no previous study shows the
ful¯ll user needs. They recommended that DUL authority number of medical libraries in Bangladesh. In addition,
should arrange more training programmes for users, ap- there is no suitable medical directory or database which
point trained professionals with ICT skills and accom- provides the statistical information about medical librar-
modated users' opinions on subscribing new e-journals. On ies of Bangladesh. According to Statistical Pocket Book of
Bangladesh, Bureau of Statistics (2010), Bangladesh has

1450012-3

M. A. K. Siddike and M. S. Islam

J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com 18 governments medical colleges, 41 private medial col- eight items focusing on tendency and frequency, purposes
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only. leges, 11 private dental colleges, and 39 private institute of and in°uential factors for using e-resources. The third part
health technology and each medical college and institute contains questions on usefulness and impact/acceptance
of health technology has its own libraries for serving their of e-resources; and the fourth part consists of the questions
respective users. Moreover, there is also a national medical on the reasons for not using e-resources. However, 96
library of Bangladesh named National Health and Docu- responses were received. The collected data have been
ment Centre (NHLDC). Besides, an international orga- analysed and interpreted by using the descriptive analysis
nisation like ICDDR,B which conducts research on techniques of SPSS 20.0.
cholera, has a modern library and information services
unit — LISU. ICDDR,B has a mix of national and inter- 5. Results and Discussions
national sta®, including public health scientists, labora-
tory scientists, clinicians, nutritionists, epidemiologists, 5.1. Background information of the
demographers, social and behavioural scientists, IT pro- respondents (n=96)
fessionals, and experts in emerging and re-emerging in-
fectious diseases, and vaccine sciences. The centre has Table 1 indicates the overall pro¯le of the users of
also a cross-cultural environment, with 95% local sta® e-resources of ICDDR,B based on the valid respondents of
including researchers, medical o±cers, administrators and the survey. It shows that a majority of the respondents
health workers, and 5% international sta® primarily from (56.3%) are female and in the age groups 26–35 years
academic and research institutions engaged in global (49%). A majority of the respondents (41.7%) have a
health research (ICDDR,B, 2012g). Therefore, we select Master's degree in relevant ¯eld, with the rest having PhD
ICDDR,B as a sample of this study. degree (24%), Bachelor degree (24%) and others (certi¯-
cate course or diploma in medical science 10%). The
The methodology includes a quantitative approach. In composition of users was senior researcher (5.2%), re-
order to investigate how medical researchers of ICDDR,B searcher (17.7%), junior researcher (20.8%), doctor and
use e-resources, a total of 120 researchers were surveyed researcher (17.7%), doctor (10.4%) and others (28.1%).
using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaires
were distributed in the ICDDR,B library with the 5.2. Frequency of using e-resources
help of an information o±cer of ICDDR,B library. The
questionnaire comprised of four parts: First part contains The e-resources are important indicator (Liu, 2006).
the background information and awareness of using Respondents were asked how frequently they used
e-resources of the respondents. The second part includes e-resources. Options were more than once a week, once a

Table 1. Overall pro¯le of the users for using e-resources [N ¼ 96].

Categories of users Frequency Percentage Valid percentage Cumulative percentage

Gender 42 43.8 43.8 43.8
Male 54 56.3 56.3 100.0
Female
Position of the researcher 5 5.2 5.2 5.2
Senior researcher 17 17.7 17.7 22.9
Researcher 20 20.8 20.8 43.8
Junior researcher 17 17.7 17.7 61.5
Doctor and researcher 10 10.4 10.4 71.9
Doctor 27 28.1 28.1 100.0
Others
Age 27 28.1 28.1 28.1
15–25 years 47 49.0 49.0 77.1
26–35 years 22 22.9 22.9 100.0
36–45 years
Highest level of education 23 24.0 24.0 24.0
PhD 40 41.7 41.7 65.6
Master's 23 24.0 24.0 89.6
Bachelor's 10 10.4 10.4 100.0
Others

1450012-4

Acceptance of E-Resources by the Medical Researchers of ICDDR,B

84.4 Springer Link and Oxford University Press followed
by Science Direct (38.5%), JSTOR (36.5%), Blackwell
15.6 (31.3%), and EBSCOhost (30.9%). However, 13.5%
000 medical researchers of ICDDR,B use Emerald while 10.4%
use IEEE. Only 8.3% of respondents use AOM, ACM,
More than Once a week Once a month Less than once Others ACS, and E-journals.com.

once a week a month 5.4. E-resources used

Fig. 1. Frequency of accessing and using e-resources. In recent years, e-resources have become the \library's
important storage" (Shuling, 2007). Table 3 represents
J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com week, once a month, less than once a month or others. For the di®erent types of e-resources used by the medical sci-
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only. the purpose of analysis, responses of more than once a entists of ICDDR,B. 100% of medical research scholars use
week were considered as `very frequent users', responses of online public access catalogue (OPAC) followed by elec-
once a week were de¯ned as `frequent users', responses of tronic journals (78.1%), electronic mails (76.6%), Internet/
once a month, less than once a month or others were de- web resources (60.4%), e-books (52.1%), and e-newspapers
¯ned as `non-users'. Figure 1 indicates that most (84.4%) (51%). However, 37.5% of researchers use e-research
of respondents access and use e-resources more than once a reports, followed by e-bibliographic databases (32.3%),
week while only 15.6% of the researchers access and use full-text databases (30.2%), e-thesis (26%), and e-maps
e-resources once a week. (16.7%).

5.3. Database used 5.5. Purpose of using e-resources

MEDLINE is the most used database in ICDDR,B. There are various purposes for a user to use e-resources
Table 2 shows that 86.9% respondents use MEDLINE including: gathering information on a speci¯c topic;
followed by Wikipedia (72.9%), AGORA (50%), PERI gaining general information; obtaining answers to speci¯c
(49%) and 43% use other databases. PubMed is the most questions; completing assignments; reviewing literature;
widely used database in the HINARI portal (Oduwole writing essays; and helping decision making (Moyo, 2004;
and Oyewumi, 2010). Both 41.7% of the respondents use Lesk, 2005; Nicholas et al., 2007). Table 4 presents a
summary of the users who accessed e-resources on each
Table 2. Di®erent databases used by the medical researchers purpose as mentioned above. The purpose of using
[N ¼ 96; Multiple responses]. e-resources di®ers from one user to another. Research
scholars were asked about the purpose of using the
e-resources. Even though the purposes are many, the main

Name of database Respondent Percentage

MEDLINE 83 86.9 Table 3. Type of e-resources used by medical researchers
Wikipedia 70 72.9 [N ¼ 96; Multiple responses].
AGORA 48 50.0
PERI 47 49.0 E-resources Respondent Percentage
Others 42 43.8
Springer Link 40 41.7 OPAC 96 100.0
Oxford University Press 40 41.7 Electronic journals 75 78.1
Science Direct 37 38.5 Electronic mails 73 76.6
JSTOR 35 36.5 Internet/web resources 58 60.4
Blackwell 30 31.3 E-books 50 52.1
EBSCOhost 29 30.9 E-newspapers 49 51.0
Emerald 13 13.5 E-research reports 36 37.5
IEEE 10 10.4 E-bibliographic databases 31 32.3
AOM 8 8.3 Full text database 29 30.2
ACM 8 8.3 E-thesis 25 26.0
ACS 8 8.3 E-data archives 20 20.8
E-Journals.com 8 8.3 Others 19 19.8
ProQuest 5 5.2 E-maps 16 16.7
CUP 0.0 0.0 CD-ROM literature 8 8.3

1450012-5

M. A. K. Siddike and M. S. Islam

Table 4. Purpose of using e-resources [N ¼ 96; Multiple Table 5. Factors a®ect the usefulness of e-resources [N ¼ 96;
responses]. Multiple responses].

Purposes Respondent Percentage Situation Respondent Percentage

To gather information on your 86 89.6 To accomplish an assignment/ 83 86.7
related topic of interest essay/thesis/paper
80 83.3 70 72.9
To get answers to some speci¯c To compare the di®erent views 62 64.6
questions 68 70.8 To gain new insights/ideas 50 52.1
57 59.4 To make a complex decision 46 47.9
To write a research paper or article 46 47.9 To undertake a research project 41 42.7
To gain general information 28 29.2 To undergo a routine task 40 41.7
To review the literature 21 21.9 To undergo a new task 24 25.0
To complete assignment 00 0.00 Others 19 19.8
To make an important decision To make a simple decision
Others

J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com purpose and the responses of the respondents are noted in research project' (47.9%), and `to undergo a new task'
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only. Table 4, which indicates that 89.6% of the respondents use (41.7%). Only 19.8% of the respondents found that
e-resources to gather information on their related topic of e-resources are useful `to make a simple decision'.
interests, 83.3% use them to get answers of some speci¯c
questions and 70.8% use them to write research paper or 5.7. Acceptance of e-resources
article. The percentage of medical research scholars
using e-resources for gaining general information is 59.4 Table 6 depicts the acceptance of e-resources by the
and reviewing literature is 47.9. However, 29.2% use medical researchers of ICDDR,B. All (100%) of the
e-resources to complete their assignment and similarly, respondents con¯rmed that \use of e-resources is part of
only 21.9% use them to make an important decision. their work/study". While 60.4% of respondents indicated
that they integrated e-resources into any of their under-
5.6. Usefulness of e-resources taken tasks, 39.6% confronted that they did not integrate
The respondents expressed very positive attitude and e-resources into any of their undertaken tasks. Half of the
satisfaction after using e-resources for their research ac- respondents (52.2%) maintained that they made their
tivities. Figure 2 reveals that most of the respondents ideas available electronically. On the other hand, 44.8% of
(69%) a±rmed that e-resources are \extremely useful" for the researchers did not make their idea available elec-
their research while 31% of respondents indicated that tronically. However, most of the respondents (66.7%) in-
e-resources are \quite useful" for their research activities. dicated that they did not publish any scholarship items
electronically.
Table 5 reveals the factors which a®ect the usefulness
of e-resources. Majority of the respondents (86.7%) found 5.8. In°uential factors for using e-resources
that e-resources are useful \to accomplish an assignment/
essay/thesis/paper", followed by `to compare the di®erent E-resources have now been recognised as a major link in
views' (72.9%), `to gain new insights/ideas' (64.6%), scholarly communication. The timely publication, ease in
`to make a complex decision' (52.1%), `to undertake a delivery, incorporation of multimedia contents, hyper-
linking, browse and search facility, etc. are some of the
Fig. 2. Usefulness of e-resources (colour online). features, which have attracted the interest of both the
library and academic communities (Madhusudhan, 2010).
There are numerous bene¯ts of using e-resources (Rehman
and Ramzy, 2004; Liu, 2006; Kani-Zabihi et al., 2008),
which become the main motivations for use. In order to
understand how users perceive the relative importance of
these bene¯ts, ¯ve factors derived from a comprehensive
review of related literature were listed in the survey: (1)
easy to access; (2) time saving; (3) variety of resources; (4)
availability of search tools; and (5) no physical space
limitation. Table 7 shows the factors in°uencing the use
of e-resources. 94.8% of the respondents reported that

1450012-6

Acceptance of E-Resources by the Medical Researchers of ICDDR,B

Table 6. Acceptance of e-resources [N ¼ 96; Multiple responses].

Acceptance of e-resources Yes No No, but attempt to
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

The use of e-resources is part of your work 96 100.0 00 00.0 00 00.0

You have ever made your ideas available 53 52.2 43 44.8 00 00.0

electronically in any way

You have published any scholarship items 31 32.3 64 66.7 1 1.0

in electronic form

You have integrated electronic resources 58 60.4 38 39.6 00 00

into any of the tasks that you undertake

J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com e-resources are easy to use, 91.7% reported that it saves the availability of search tools, and the absence of physical
by 50.116.19.84 on 01/31/16. For personal use only. time, and 83.3% of respondents use e-resources for the space limitations. Information and communication tech-
availability of search tools and techniques. However, half nology plays an important role in producing these positive
(51%) of the researchers use e-resources due to no physical results. It not only enables and facilitates easier, faster and
limitation. wider access, but also serves as the backbone of the
e-resources (Adams and Bonk, 1995; Santos et al., 2007).
5.9. Barriers of using e-resources The ¯ndings of the study indicate the acceptance of
e-resources by the research scholars of ICDDR,B. The
Users ¯nd no problem in accessing e-resources once they medical researchers of ICDDR,B are aware of using
are aware of the availability of search engines, databases, e-resources. Awareness is an important factor a®ecting the
and all other internet-based e-resources (Swain and use of e-resources (Rehman and Ramzy, 2004). Moreover,
Panda, 2009). It is surprising that no respondents of the this study also shows that the medical scientists are very
survey indicates any barriers for using e-resources in frequent in using e-resources and they use e-resources for
ICDDR,B. It is to be noted that ICDDR,B is an interna- di®erent purposes. They use e-resources to gather infor-
tional health research institution of Bangladesh. It pro- mation on their related topic of interest, to get answers of
vides sound atmosphere for research. It also provides some speci¯c questions and to write research paper or
sophisticated technological facilities for its researchers, article. The results of the study yield that e-resources are
scientists and health workers. But if we think about all the extremely useful and highly accepted as part of their re-
other medical researchers of Bangladesh, administrative search. However, medical researchers indicated the fol-
barriers; lack of uninterruptable internet connections, lack lowing ¯ve factors in°uencing the use of e-resources
of trained manpower; lack of cooperation from govern- including, (1) ease of access; (2) time saving; (3) variety of
ments as well as the concerned authorities, lack of proper resources; (4) availability of search tools; and (5) no
plan, etc. are the possible barriers of using e-resources in physical space limitation.
the medical sectors of Bangladesh.
The purpose of this study was to discuss the acceptance
6. Discussions and Recommendations of e-resources by the medial researchers of ICDDR,B. This
study found very positive attitude and views of using
The medical scholars of ICDDR,B showed very positive e-resources by the medical researchers of ICDDR,B. A
attitude towards e-resources for the availability of various majority of the researchers believed that e-resources are
resources and their accessibility and timesaving features, extremely useful for conducting research. It was also found
that users with di®erent purposes di®ered signi¯cantly in
Table 7. Factors in°uencing for using e-resources [N ¼ 96; their access and use of e-resources. Di®erent factors are
Multiple responses]. important for in°uencing the use of e-resources. To ac-
celerate e-resources among the scholars of ICDDR,B, Li-
In°uencing factors for using ERs Respondent Percentage brary has to promote more o®-campus access of
e-resources. Moreover, attempts should be made to make
Easy to use 91 94.8 all the scholars of ICDDR,B aware of e-resources and
Save time 88 91.7 appropriate methods should be developed to appraise and
Availability of search tools 80 83.3 orient the scholars how to get full text articles without
Without the physical space limitation 49 51.0 facing much di±culties. In this regard, it is needed to
Others 16 16.7

1450012-7

M. A. K. Siddike and M. S. Islam

J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2014.13. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com organise additional training for using e-resources by the Graham, SR (2003). Historians and electronic resources: A
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