B. T. Sampath Kumar

Perception and usage of e‐resources and the internet by Indian academics

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the perception and use of e‐resources and the internet by the engineering, medical and management academics in Bangalore City, India. The prime objective is to find out how academics compare e‐sources with print sources and how they perceive the advantages of e‐sources and problems for accessing them. It further aims to establish the extent of internet use, the purpose of such use and factors influencing it.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 300 students and faculty members in selected engineering, medical and management colleges of Bangalore City. The questionnaire consists of 15 main questions with many of them having a number of subsidiary questions. The questions are designed for the students and faculty members to elicit their experience with the e‐sources and internet use for their study and research work.Findings – Study results show that the students and faculty who participated in this survey are aware of e‐sources and also the internet. Ev...

HTTP 404-page (not) found: Recovery of decayed URL citations

Study investigates the availability, persistence and half life of URL citations cited in two Indian LIS journals articles published between 2002 and 2010. This study also investigates how researchers can resurrect lapsed URL citations cited in research articles, using Wayback machine. A total of 1290 URLs cited in 472 research articles published in Indian LIS journals spanning a period of 9 years (2002–2010) were extracted. Study found that only 18.91% (1290 out of 6820) of URLs cited in these journal articles. 39.84% of URL citations were not accessible and remaining 60.15% of URL citations were still accessible. The HTTP 404 error message-“page not found” was the overwhelming message encountered and represented 54.86% of all HTTP error messages. However 51.06% URLs were recovered from HTTP 404 error message. Study also noticed that the half-life of URL citations was increased from 6.33 years to 13.85 years after recovering missing URLs from Wayback machine.

Persistence and half‐life of URL citations cited in LIS open access journals

Purpose – The main purpose of the present study is to examine the availability and persistence of URL citations in two LIS open access journals. It also intended to calculate the half‐life period of URL citations cited in journal articles.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 2,890 URL citations cited in 689 research articles published in LIS journals spanning a period of 14 years (1996‐2009) were extracted. In order to check the accessibility of URL citations, W3C link checker was used. After the initial check, inactive URL citations were listed. Domains and HTTP errors associated with inactive URL citations were identified for further analysis. The half‐life period was calculated using the formula t(h)=[t ln(0.5)]/[ln W(t)−ln W(0)].Findings – The research findings indicated that 57.61 percent (397 of 689) of articles have URL citations and percentage of URL citations increased from 5.98 percent in 1996 to 27.79 percent in 2009. It was found that 26.08 percent of all citations were not accessible duri...

Availability and persistence of web citations in Indian LIS literature

Purpose – The worldwide web is growing at an enormous speed and web citations are becoming very common in scholarly publications. However the major problem of web citation is its persistence since citations disappear over time, causing accessibility problems for readers. In this context the present study aims to investigate the availability of web citations and their persistence in Indian Library and Information Science literature. The study also aims to investigate types of link accessibility errors encountered, domains associated with missing web citations and the correlation between the path depth and missing web citations.Design/methodology/approach – The web citations (URLs) from 350 articles published in Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS) conference volume (2001‐2008) were extracted and then tested to determine the accessibility. The W3C Link Checker (http://validator.w3.org/checklink) was used to evaluate links associated with a cited web resource. This link ...

Search engines and their search strategies: the effective use by Indian academics

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of various search engines and meta search engines by Indian academics for retrieving information on the web. It also aims to know whether the academics use search strategy of various search engines for retrieval of information or not, and how the Indian academics learn the various search strategies for using search engines. Design/methodology/approach – The data collection instruments used for this study were a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with students and faculty members. The questionnaire consisted of various questions which were designed to elicit the use of search engines, search strategies and method of leaning the search strategies of search engines. A total of 450 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 300 duly filled copies were returned, constituting a 66.66 percent response rate. The data thus collected were analysed with the help of the SPSS (version 19.0) statistical package to present the findings in percentage and te...

Internet use and its impact on the academic performance of university teachers and researchers

Purpose – The internet growth has created a new scientific communication system with new facilities that are competing with the traditional sources of information. The present study investigated impact of internet use on academic performance of teachers and researcher in university setup. The aim of this paper is to find out how these academics use internet sources and services? What is the users satisfaction level with internet sources and services? And what problems has the user encountered when searching the information on the internet. It further aims to know how the user compares the internet sources with traditional information sources. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected teachers and researchers in Kuvempu University, Karnataka state. Total 200 questionnaires were distributed out of which 140 duly filled questionnaires were returned. The questionnaire consisted of various questions which are designed for the teachers and researchers to elicit the impa...

Computer literacy competencies among Indian students: the digital divide

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate computer literacy competencies among rural and urban students in India and its prime objectives are to find out: how rural and urban students use computers, what is the purpose of computers for these students and what problems have the students encountered while using computers. Design/methodology/approach – Scheduled interviews were conducted to collect necessary data from rural and urban students. The interview schedules consisted of various questions designed to elicit details about the students’ use of computers. A total of 600 interview schedules were collected and data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for windows to test the formulated hypothesis. Findings – The findings of the study indicate that the infrastructural facilities varied among rural and urban schools. Another notable finding of the study was that majority (91.33 percent) of urban students used computers compared to a significantly less percentage of rural students (32.33 percent). Most rural students have not used computers mainly because they do not know how to (49.75 percent) followed by lack of support from teachers (48.76 percent) and non-availability of computers in their schools (48.27 percent). Electrical power failure was another major problem faced by both urban students (31.75 percent) and rural students (40.20 percent). Originality/value – This study attempted to learn about the computer literacy competencies among the students and the digital divide in Indian schools. On the basis of the findings, the study has recommended guidelines to bridge the digital gap. These findings and recommendations will potentially be helpful to school authorities and the government in order to take the necessary measurements to bridge the digital gap between the rural and urban students.

Computer access and use: understanding the expectations of Indian rural students

Purpose – This study aims to understand the expectations of rural students with respect to their computer access and use. It also made an attempt to learn the expectations of rural students from their schools and local government in providing the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach – Interview schedules were used to collect the necessary data from the rural students. The interview schedules consisted of various questions that were designed to elicit the expectations of rural students in terms of their usage of computers. A total of 300 interview schedules were collected from the students, and data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Windows 19.0 version) to test the formulated hypothesis. Findings – This study clearly showed that 72 per cent of female and 63.33 per cent of male students have not used a computer. Most of the students opined that lack of support from teachers (91.57 per cent = Male, 94.25 per cent = Female) ...

Use of computer and its impact on academic performance of faculty members and research scholars : a case study of Kuvempu University

The paper is intended to identify the differences in the access and use of computer among the academics. It also aimes to know the impact of computer use on the academic performance of faculty members and research scholars in a university setup. A survey questionnaire was administered to university academics and collected on its completion. This study has demonstrated the high use of the computer by faculty and research scholars. It is found that there exists a difference of opinion among the faculty and research scholars regarding the computer access (p=0.000), years of experience in the use of computer (p=0.000) and purpose of use (p=0.040). Data also shows that there is a difference of opinion among the faculty members and research scholars regarding the impact of computer on their academic performance (p=0.025).

Corrosion of URLs: Implications for electronic publishing

The aim of this study is to analyze the accessibility, corrosion and half-life of URLs cited in the articles of Indian LIS conference proceedings published during 2001 to 2010. A total of 5,698 URLs cited in the 1,700 articles were examined. The percentage of URLs increased from 39.10 percent in 2001 to 73.47 percent in 2009. The study found that 50.09 percent of URLs were not accessible at the time of testing and the remaining 49.91 percent of URLs were accessible. The HTTP 404 error message – “file not found” was the overwhelming message encountered and represented 53.29 percent of all HTTP messages. The study also noticed that the average half-life of URLs of missing URLs was estimated to be 4.94 years. Even though there are various retrieval tools being used to recover vanished URLs, still there is a need to improve such tools.