Awareness and Use of Electronic Resources by the Post Graduate Students of West Bengal State University, West Bengal: A Study

Universities are seeking to play a key role in the research and development process. An important element in the research process is the accessibility of information resources and services provided by libraries. Postgraduate students are key producers of research in universities, and an important element in their research process is the access to information. This paper is an attempt to study the issues like awareness and use of electronic resources, its impact on the purpose of electronic resources use and the place where the users are accessing these resources. The Random Sampling technique together with a questionnaire was used for data collection from 140 postgraduate students from West Bengal State University. The findings show that users from all these categories were using e-resources; the awareness about e-resources encourages users to use such resources to the maximum; and the users are using home and central library more for accessing the information. The impact of e-resources was visible from the decrease in number of printed journals in comparison to the increase in number of electronic journals. The paper records the reasons why Post graduate students use electronic information resources are; research activity, paper writing for publication, and preparing for projects. It suggests further for an improvement in the access facilities with high Internet speed and subscription to more e-resources by the University Library. The present study also attempts to encounter different problems faced by the students during accessing e-resources.