The need to provide off-campus access to electronic resources and services:
A comparative analysis of the usability of the main library website of
University of Colombo
by
Dilani Herath Mudiyanselage
A minor thesis submitted for the degree of
Master of Library and Information Management
School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences
Information Management Division
Supervisor: Dr Diana Hodge
July 2017
Contents
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………...v
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………….vi
Glossary………………………………………………………………………….vii
1. Introduction...... 01
1.1 Research background...... 01
1.2 Background of the University of Colombo...... 02
1.2.1 Library of University of Colombo…….……….03
1.3 South Australian University library websites………...... 03
1.4 Aim of the research……………………………………...... 05
1.4.1 Research problem and question………………05
1.5 Further research………………………………………….06
2. Methodology…………………………………………………………07
2.1 Research approach...... 07
2.1.1 Mixed method design…………………………...07
2.2 Research methods…………………………………………07
2.2.1 Literature review………………………………...07
2.2.2 Structured open-ended questions…………....08
2.3 Data comparison…………………………………………..08
2.4 Analysis………………………………………………...... 08
2.4.1 South Australian academic libraries...... 08
2.4.2 Library of University of Colombo...... 09
3. Literature review………………………………………………...... 10
3.1The Library of University of Colombo……………...... 10
3.2Off-campus access Mechanisms…………………………11
3.3Lessons learned from distance education………………13
3.3 User behaviour while transition from print to electronic13
3.4 Information searching sources………………………14
3.5 Information seeking behaviour of university students16
3.6 Independent learning skills…………………………….18
3.7 Online Information literacy framework………………18
4. Findings…………………………………………………………….20
5. Discussion……………………………………………………...... 23
5.1 Comparison between library resources and services…24
5.2 Computer literacy and household computer ownership25
5.3 Suggestions………………………………………………27
5.3.1 Application of discovery layers………………27
5.3.2 Off-campus access through EZproxy……….28
5.3.3 Information literacy learning materials………29
6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………31
7. Research timeline………………………………………………32
8. References………………………………………………………33
9. Appendices………………………………………………………36
Appendix A: Structured open-ended questions…………………36
Appendix B: Home page of the Flinders library website…………37
Appendix C: University of Adelaide library website………………38
Appendix D: Foreign students studying at the University of Colombo39
List of Figures
Figure 1UniSA library client survey in 2015…………………………15
Figure 2Internet users as percentage of population in South Asian countries26
Figure 3 UniSA library website home page……………………………27
Figure 4UoC Library website home page…………………………….27
Figure 5EZproxy mechanism…………………………………………28
Figure 6Library guide for University of South Australia……………30
List of Tables
Table 1Ranking web of universities…………………………………04
Table 2Comparison between South Australian academic libraries20
Table 3Comparison of library resources and services……………24
Table 4Research timeline……………………………………………32
Glossary
UoC University of Colombo
UniSA University of South Australia
LKR Sri Lankan Rupee (Currency)
A$ Australian Dollar (Currency)
GCE A/LGeneral Certificate of Education- Advanced Level
JSTOR Journal Storage
ILLInter Library Loans
USBUniversal Serial Bus
N/ANot Available
CSICConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
VNCVirtual Network Computing
RHN Red Hat Network
USAUnited States of America
ILMSIntegrated Library Management System
ACODEAustralasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning
IPInternet Protocol
ITInformation Technology
S/WSoftware
RPResearch Proposal
MTMinor Thesis
DRM Digital Rights Management
PPV Pay per View
Summary
Sri Lankan government universities do not provide distance education programs and do not hold large amounts of electronic resources; limited budgets and lack of technical staff are two of the challenges they face in changing this situation (Jayasuriya 2008). Sri Lankan university libraries face similar barriers to offering off-campus access to resources. There have been very few studies focusing on the issues government academic libraries in Sri Lanka face in attempting to provide off-campus access to collections and services (Punchihewa & Kumara 2013). The Library of University of Colombo (UoC) provides greater access to physical resources and access to only a limited number of online resources. The Library of UoC subscribes to several popular online databases and provides access to these databases only through the on-campus computers connected to the University network. Off-campus access to online databases and electronic journals is not provided. Among fifteen government universities established in Sri Lanka, only a few universities have provided access to these online databases including the University of Moratuwa and Open University of Sri Lanka.
This research will compare the access that is provided to library resources, services and support through the website of the Library of UoC with the three South Australian universitylibraries and suggest enhancements to the off-campus access to the library resources and services of the UoC. This research investigates how the South Australian universitylibraries transformed from physical to digital over time and increased remote access for their students. The Sri Lankan government universities are in the initial process of using e-books and providing access to online services. The history of the digital transition in Australia will provide an overview of the problems South Australian universitylibraries faced in the transition period, and what decisions were taken to overcome those issues. It is essential for universities and their libraries to understand the information seeking behaviour of university students in the digital era and provide resources and services as per their expectations. This research will identify the user expectations and behaviour related to accessing information offcampus and suggest solutions to build the bridge between the Library of UoC and its users.
The Library of UoC needs to consider three major areas to increase the level of usability of its website to provide off-campus access to library services and resources. These areas are: improve discoverability of collections, harness technology to provide off-campus access and provide resources to help students develop their information literacy skills. Comparing the results between the three South Australian universities and UoC indicates that the UoC library needs to improve access to online resources. The Library of UoC currently does not use an indexed discovery layer so students must search the Library and federated search tool separately. To provide a contemporary search experience UoC library needs to redesign its content management system bringing catalogue and library databases together giving a single search experience. Regarding the technological aspect of off-campus access, it is recommended that UoC set up EZproxy to allow students to access electronic resources remotely. To maximise the individual students’ information literacy learning it is suggested the UoC library creates online self-help resources, such as videos, subject and reference guides, bibliographic management software and assignment help, and provides access to these through its website. The process of implementing the EZproxy mechanism is not discussed in this research as it is beyond the research scope.
Declaration
This thesis presents work carried out by myself and does not incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university; to the best of my knowledge it does not contain any materials previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text; and all substantive contributions by others to the work presented, including jointly authored publications, are clearly acknowledged.
Dilani Herath Mudiyanselage27 July 2017
Acknowledgments
Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Diana Hodge and Dr Stewart Von Itzstein and Dr Diane Velasquez for their support, guidance and encouragement given to me over the past 12 months. I would like to thank Dr Diana Hodge for the time she spent meeting with me, reading and commenting on this thesis.I must thank Diana forintroducing me to relevant staff members at University of South Australia (UniSA), Flinders University and Adelaide University, enabling me to gather necessary information for the thesis.
I would like to thank Mr Mark Baldock, Web Coordinator of UniSA, Ms Gill Blacket, Senior Resources Librarian at Flinders University and Ms Margaret Colmer, the Access Services Librarian of University of Adelaide, for answering my questions through email communication. They were always happy and were prepared to respond to my various questions regarding the provision of off-campus access to library resources and services through their respective library websites.
I would like to thank Mr Bandara, the Deputy Registrar of the Faulty of Medicine, UoC and Ms Sivasanthiran, Assistant Librarian at the main Library of UoC for providing information related to the Library of UoC, Sri Lanka.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank my husband Shripal Sethsiri and my family for their love and support throughout my degree and especially this year.
1
1Introduction
Research background
In the digital era, the information discovery landscape has been shaped by new technologies such as digital networks, mobile devices, search engines and the quick availability of digital information on the internet (Fisch, Parnell & Educause 2009, p. 1). This evolution has changed expectations and information seeking behaviour of people in a way not previously imagined (Mansfield et al. 2014, p. 22). The digital evolution provides faster services to access information regardless of the location, time and device.The higher education sector is changing over time responding to these digital evolutions and students’ expectations (Kim 2011, p. 9). In these higher educational institutions, a well-established library is a focal point for teaching, learning and research (Fisch, Parnell & Educause 2009, p. 1). Academic libraries need to provide easy and equitable access to library resources to meet students’ needs and expectations. With digital advancements, the number of journals available electronically has increased rapidly over time (Mansfield et al. 2014, p. 23). Academic libraries spend a high percentage of their annual budgets on subscriptions to electronic resources, such as online databases, electronic journals and books. Conversely, the other online content providers, such as Google and Amazon, challenge the libraries’ information monopoly (Kim 2011, p. 9).As a result, academic libraries face the challenge of ensuring their future existence through redesigning their library building architecture, websites and the way they provide services to meet students’ needs and expectations (Kim 2011, p. 9). With initiatives in the higher education sector such as distance education, it is imperative for libraries to ensure increasing utilisation of web-based resources and services catering to both internal and external usersequally (Kim 2011, p. 9).
Background of the University of Colombo
The UoC, situated in the heart of the capital city of Colombo, is the oldest university in Sri Lanka.The UoC has seven faculties that handle undergraduate courses and the Faculty of Graduate Studies provides diploma and postgraduate courses involving different academic disciplines for postgraduate students (University of Colombo 2016).
Tertiary education in Sri Lanka is funded and controlled by the government and is delivered through government-owned universities; however, the number of private universities is increasing in Sri Lanka, becoming the government universities’ biggest competitors. In 2012, the government had allocated LKR1627million (approximately A$14 million) for the UoC as recurrent and capital grants and LKR1million (approximately A$8950) as Information Technology grants for the Library, which is quite a low grant to cover most of the University facilities (University of Colombo 2016, p. 27). There are many discussions in Sri Lanka about increasing the budget allocation for higher studies, which is currently less than a 2 percent. Sri Lankan government universities are non-profit organisations and tertiary education is provided free for a selected number of students based on the results of a competitive examination—the Advanced Level Examination (GCE A/L). In 2012, among the 233,634 students who sat for the GCE A/L, only 144,745 qualified to enter university—that is, 61.95 percent(Department of Census and Statistics 2017).
In accordance with merit on a district basis, 8,394 students are selected to enter UoC undergraduate courses each year (Department of Census and Statistics 2013). Only a small number of students are privileged to enter government universitiesin comparison to the total number of students who sit for the examination each year. In the same year, the intake of students for postgraduate degree programs was 5692 (University of Colombo 2016). The university provides internal full-time courses for undergraduate students and external part-time courses for postgraduate students. ‘External’ in relation to postgraduate students, refers to funding rather than study mode. The postgraduate students pay their own fees, while undergraduate students’ places are government funded. Both undergraduate and postgraduate students must attend lectures that are scheduled on the university premises on weekdays or weekends. Undergraduate students study full-time, while postgraduates study part-time on the weekends.
Library of University of Colombo
The Library of UoC collection consists of more than 500,000 books, periodicals, audiovisual materials and electronic resources in the disciplines of arts, education, humanities, law, management, commerce, medicine, pure science and social sciences. Resource collections grow rapidly, with the addition of about 5,000 to 6,000 items annually.
The Library subscribes to JSTOR and HeinOnline databases, which can be accessed from any terminal on the University premises. The Library also has access to SAGE Research Methods, Emerald Insight, Taylor & Francis Online, Oxford Journals and Wiley Online Library through National Digital Library Consortium, since 2014. In addition, the Library provides access to some free electronic books and subscribed databases mentioned above.
Copies of intellectual outputs of the University, such as research papers, conference papers, theses, books, presentations and technical reports from the UoC community are stored in the ‘Institutional Repository’ database and the access is provided through the home page of the library website. Similarly, digitised past examination papers can also be accessed through the library website home page.
The library website is a dynamic website, which has been developed in WordPress (WordPress is a free and open-source content management system). The content is stored in a server which is in the library. The home page of the website includes the library catalogue, which allows students to search only printed and audiovisual materials. Subscribed online databases can be searched through the federated search bar that is available on the home page of the library website separately from the catalogue.
Library websites of South Australian universities
In this study, three South Australian universities are considered. They are, the University of South Australia (UniSA), the University of Adelaide, and Flinders University. The ‘Ranking Web of Universities’ (Table 1 below) shows the rankings of university websites according to the website ranking survey carried out in 2017 (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) 2017). These websites have been ranked evaluating all university websites linked to the main university website. This ranking is not about the library website, but the quality of the library website has been evaluated in ranking these websites. If the quality of the library website is not satisfactory, it falls on the website ranking. Based on these rankings, it is understood that these three South Australian universities have well designed, managed and updated websites in comparison to the website of UoC. To make a comparison, it is important get an understanding of the standard of the website quality that is used for comparison. Therefore, through this study and comparison to these South Australian library websites, the Library of UoC can learn which areas of its website needs to be improved.
Table 1Ranking Web of Universities (CSIC 2017) (* lower number is better)
University / In Australia / In the world*University of Adelaide / 7 / 144
University of South Australia / 19 / 414
Flinders University / 22 / 482
University of Colombo / – / 2171
The South Australian universities provide distance education, and in accordance with this objective, their libraries provide off-campus access to library resources and services for both on-campus and distance learners. Students of these three universities can search their libraries’ full collections remotely by one click through the library catalogue. The library catalogue search bar is prominent on their webpages, and is in a prioritised position on their library home pages. Anyone who visits these library websites will see the catalogue first as the key to library collections. In addition, these libraries are concerned with helping students at particular times, such as when the student is either not able to reach the library for assistance, or the library is closed.
To enhance both on-campus students’ and distance learners’ independent learning skills, the South Australian universities’ libraries provide resources such as information literacy videos, resource guides and training such as online tutorials and virtual training sessions. Apart from these services, distance learners and postgraduate students can request physical books and have them delivered to their preferred locations through the Document Delivery Service. These requests can be made via their online library accounts, and they can request the library to renew or cancel their items online.
Aim of the research
Research problem and question
How could the UoC enhance accessibility to a range of electronic resources and web-based services through the library website for off-campus students?
The research question is the core of the research, guiding all stages of the research, including review of literature, methodology, analysis and reporting (Creswell 2009, p. 114). With the aim of providing solutions in response to this research question, this study looks at how the Library of UoC provides access to their range of resources and services through the library website of UoC at this moment. This research explores the extent to which the Library of UoC meets the user needs and promotes library resources and services through the librarywebsite. This research also investigates the reasons behind why the UoC Library is not providing these resources and services for students.
Firstly, the data will be gathered through primary and secondary data gathering methods. The gathered data will be analysed to get an understanding of the gaps between resources and services provided by the UoC in comparison to the South Australian universities.
This study will then investigate how the library website of UoC should be changed to increase accessibility to those resources and services. The research problem has been divided into the sub categories below.
Key points to address in this research:
South Australian academic libraries:
- Identify how South Australian university libraries have changed over time, from physical to digital, and have overcome challenges in this process; and how these libraries support distance learners by providing off-access to electronic resources and services.
- Investigate technologies that have been used at South Australian academic libraries to provide remote access to those resources.
Library of UoC: