Use of University Library Websites by LIS Students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the status of using university library

websites among students of Library and Information Science in Jordanian

universities. Another purpose is to know whether there are statistically

significant differences in the degree of using these websites due to sex, and

year of study. In order to accomplish this aim, a random sample was chosen,

which consists of (170) male and female students enrolled in BA program

in the Department of Library and Information Science in the University of

Jordan, and the Department of Libraries and Information Management in the

Faculty of Princess Alia University, in the second semester of the academic

year 2012/ 2013.

A questionnaire consists of eleven questions was distributed among the

students asking them about their awareness of the availability of the websites,

the level of their use to them, and the purpose for which they are used. The

study intended to find out whether the students faced any problems when

using the websites. 143 students responded, a response rate of (84%) .

The analysis revealed that (86.7%) of the respondents were aware of the

availability of their university library website. The study found that a high

percentage of respondents (77. 6%) used their university library website. The

findings of the study showed that about (21%) of the sample used websites

of other university libraries. The respondents used the websites mainly for

study, conducting research, and searching for books from the library. Few

respondents faced some problems when using the websites, such as their need

for passwords, and lack of databases in Arabic.

The study revealed that there were no differences at (a ≤ 0.05) among

respondents’ usage of the websites attributed to sex and year of study.