Faculty awareness and use of Library subscribed online databases in the University of Education, Winneba. Ghana: A survey. (English)

Today electronic databases have become the backbone of many academic libraries around the globe including Ghana. This is largely due to its advantages over the print resources. Libraries spend colossal amount of resources on online databases in a bid to enhance teaching, learning and research in institutions of higher learning. This study was carried out to examine the usage of online databases by faculty members of the University of Education, Winneba. It focuses on only the Winneba campus to address the following objectives among others; explore the awareness level of the databases the university subscribes to and to determine the extent of use and the relevance of the databases by faculty. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. The study was a survey and made use of questionnaire to elicit data from the respondents. A sample population of 210 was given questionnaires bearing in mind the research questions which guided the study. Data was analysed using frequencies and simple percentages. The results of the study revealed that majority of respondents were aware of the databases though there were few of them who did not know the existence of the databases. It further established that a number of faculty members who utilise the databases, had knowledge of some of the databases and use them mainly for research and other educational activities. However, the results indicated that though faculty acknowledges the importance of the databases to their information needs, there were few hindrances that inhibit their effective use of the databases, these were; no access to the databases outside the campus, often passwords to some databases not functioning, and issues bothering on internet connectivity. The paper ends with recommendations to ensure effective and efficient use of the databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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