In recent years, a tremendous amount of fiscal and human resources have been spent on the acquisitions and provision of electronic information resources.  In order to gain a better understanding of the usage of Library-subscribed electronic databases and e-journals by the full-time academic staff of the University, a survey was conducted in May 2001 by a working group represented by three professional librarians plus an academic staff from the Department of Sociology and a member from the Information and Technology Service Centre (ITSC).  The teaching staff served as the faculty resource person for this project.  ITSC was involved because it was anticipated that the questionnaire and user comments might touch on services provided by ITSC.

The questionnaire had six parts: 1) awareness of electronic resources; 2) extent of usage; 3) technical aspects and support service; 4) user training; 5) personal data and 6) other.  Of all the questionnaires sent to 510 academic staff via campus mail, 106 valid questionnaires were received.  Results were compiled and tabulated in summer 2001.  As anticipated, the respondents reported that they usually accessed electronic resources on a regular basis from their offices primarily for research purposes followed by teaching purposes.  One interesting finding was that the majority of the respondents considered it important to retain both printed and electronic versions of the same journal in spite of the convenient access to electronic journals.  Users’ feedback and comments will be used to guide the Library's planning effort to provide user-centred services in support of the University's teaching, learning and research endeavours.
 

Paul Lee
Convenor of the eIRS Survey Working Group
Hong Kong Baptist University Library