Suresh B. Balutagi and B. D. Kumbar
The importance and significance of electronic resources to teaching and research is
widely recognized by many researchers. With the advent of information and
communication technologies such as the internet and the web, electronic resources have
become a widely accepted scholarly resource for both students and faculty. They have
also been shown to be more helpful especially to faculty and distance learners who may
have limited access to library resources in traditional formats. Information and
communication technologies have transformed most traditional libraries into hybrid
libraries storing most of their resources in both print and electronic formats. The study
seeks to investigate faculty’s awareness and usage of online academic databases in order
to determine the benefits they associate with electronic resources and the challenges
they encounter in accessing electronic resources. A questionnaire was used to collect the
data. This is because questionnaires are an inexpensive way to gather data from a
potentially large number of respondents.