Impact of Electronic Information Resources on the Mindset of Researchers

Abstract

The main purpose of the study in hand was to assess the impact of advent of electronic information resources on some core aspects related to the research activity across agricultural libraries of Northern India. Six aspects have been covered in this study. Seven sampled universities were surveyed personally by the investigator for collecting data about the questions under investigation. A questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. Filled out questionnaires from 1,200 respondents were collected and processed with the help of SPSS statistical package. The response of the users for each statement under investigation has been collected through a simple ‘Yes'/‘No' option. Chi squared test has been administered to work out the significance of association between the parameters under study and the user opinion thereof. The majority of respondents are of the opinion that due to advent of e-resources and in view of the ICT developments the ‘literature survey' (92.94%) and ‘problem identification' (51.81%) has become easy and fast. The ‘spirit to conduct more and more research' has increased among respondents (86.62%). Moreover, this has also enabled the users to ‘complete' (84.31%) and ‘publish' (89.97%) their research work in a lesser time than required in print era. A good percentage of respondents (46.26%) also agree that the ‘cross comparison of findings of one's study with those of other studies has become easy and fast' (46.26%) in electronic era.