RBU_JR_LIS_V23_2021-FULL_TEXT-E-Copy

Senthil & Madhusudhan: Assessment of DRDO e-Journal
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providing some other value-added service instead of
maintaining usage statistics.
"Advancements in data transmission rates and device
design have greatly improved the mobile internet browsing
experience. These recent enhancements suggest that future
developments and previously mentioned demographic
patterns would enable many academic library users to use
these library services from handheld mobile computing
devices easily. Furthermore, these devices are increasingly
able to connect to the internet using Wi-Fi connections
when available as opposed to using slower and often
expensive cell phone connections" (Cummings, Merrill,
and Borrelli, 2010). It is clear from the results Table- 5
that the respondents' most significant problems were 'free
Wi-Fi connectivity’ (86 per cent). The findings indicate
that usage of e-journal may increase if the Wi-Fi facility
has been implemented in DRDO labs.
Today libraries are “functioning in the hybrid (paper and
electronic) environment and are active partners in one of
the e-journals Consortiums. Information literacy is
emerging as one of the most critical literacy for an
educated person who will be living and working in the
twenty-first century” (Madhusudhan, 2012). There is a
suitable course from this examination that the Librarians
have not a positive look on the organisation of the
Information Literacy Programme to their users and to
overcome the impediments while accessing e-journals by
users in studied libraries. As Sethi and Panda (2012)
suggested, "lack of appropriate training to the users to
access e-resources is considered one of the major
constraints ineffective use of e-resources."
The study's findings (Table-6) suggest that the ILP
programme needs to be organised for the user community
and the librarians to keep abreast of the content and
coverage of e-journals covered in the consortium better at
infrequent intervals utilization. Surprisingly, many studied
libraries are not sound in the delivery methods of ILP. The
data also reveals that 56 per cent of the librarians would
like to organise the special ILP program. The remaining
would like to organise either through publishers or onsite
training by the third party. The e-journals consortium
implementing lab, i.e., DESIDOC, has to note this fruitful
finding to organise ILP programme at periodic intervals
for better usage of e-journals by the users.
Suggestions
The librarians are well acquainted with user demands,
suggestions for improving the DRDO e-journals
consortium were raised to them in terms of content,
coverage, addition, and deletion of publishers in the
consortium is mentioned below:
(i)
To users ' expectations, it is suggested to
subscribe to more e-journals in psychology, polymer,
composites, nanotechnology, textiles, and materials
science.
(ii) It is suggested to subscribe to citation databases
such as Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus to enable
scientists to improve their research work visibility.
Publishers like Emerald, Sage, Springer, Institute of
Physics (IOP), American Institute of Physics (AIP) in the
consortium meet the library research requirements by
users. Furthermore, including standards databases like
ASTM, ASME and SAE, and the consortium's patent
database and technology trends will benefit the labs.
(iii)
The study suggested that the content of the
journals has to be improved to sustain in the e-journals
consortium. Otherwise, it may lead to discontinuing the
e-journals in the consortium. The publishers and
implementing lab, i.e., DESIDOC, have to note this point
to improve the content to fulfill the expectation level of
librarians.
(iv) Creating a new responsive website for the DRDO
e-journals consortium and providing access to video
tutorials for new features available in the e-journals
platform is suggested.
(v) The findings of the study suggest that the
implement discovery tools in the e-journals consortium
website for searching e-journals instead of using multiple
publishers' websites.
(vi) To improve the download trend among the
scientific community, the content and coverage of the e-
journals have to meet the users' expectations and be in
line with the lab's R&D activity.
(vii) It is suggested to create awareness on
advanced/federated searching of e-journals on a priority
basis.
(viii) It is suggested that library professionals should
train themselves on e-journals offered by publishers,
vendors, and consortia.
(ix) It is suggested to conduct training programs from
time to time on changes in e-journals subscription to
the labs and access to e-journals without any
hindrance.
(x) It is suggested that usage statistics of e-journals
help librarians convince the consortium administrators to
continue subscriptions or cancel e-journals and
demonstrate value to the money.
(xi) It is suggested that Lab libraries motivate
scientists and technical officers by giving awards to them
for more using e-journals.
Conclusion
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The investigation has yielded valuable findings and has
accomplished its goals. The study's findings revealed that
out of 50 libraries, only four libraries were subscribing to
e-journals that were not covered in the DRDO e-journals
consortium, and the majority of libraries have a budget of
less than one crore. It is concluded from the data that the
publishers Elsevier, IEEE, and Wiley have more coverage
in the e-journals consortium than other publishers covered
in the consortium. It is evident that DESIDOC has covered