Roles of Postgraduate Students’ Satisfaction with E-Resources and Perception of Daystar University and Multimedia University Libraries

Abstract

University libraries play a central role in supporting teaching, learning and research activities as citadels of information and knowledge. They provide wide range of user-centered information sources and services, and customer-centric response mechanisms which are expected to not only satisfy users, but also to create an impression of one stop shop for all users’ information needs. Despite the aforementioned value contribution, research has shown that most postgraduate students’ perception of university libraries is inappropriate. This can be attributed to among others the users’ experience and satisfaction which they have had with e-resources. This study examined the contributory roles of satisfaction with e-resources in influencing the perception of university libraries by postgraduate students’ at Daystar University and Multimedia University. The objectives of the study were to assess the nature of support services provided, staff competencies; and determine satisfaction with e-resources and the perception of university libraries by postgraduate students in the two universities. The study was guided by the connectivity theory, the self-efficacy theory and the theory of reasoned action. It adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population was postgraduate students and library staff who are in charge of e-resources, and heads of university libraries in both universities. Twenty percent of postgraduate students, that is, 116, and 6 library staff from both universities participated in the study. Postgraduate students were first stratified into two: Masters, and PhD students, and then, a simple random sampling technique was applied in each stratum, while all the six library staff were purposively selected. Self-administered questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from students and staff respectively. Pre-testing was used to determine both reliability and validity of the research instruments. Data was analyzed descriptively using mean, percentage, frequency and standard deviation. Inferential statistics, that is, correlation and regression analysis were used to assess the relationship between the study variables. The findings revealed that when combined, all the predictor variables (support services on e-resources, competencies of library staff and satisfaction with e-resources) positively and significantly influenced the perception of university libraries by postgraduate students. The study concluded that support services offered on e-resources, competencies of library staff and satisfaction with e-resources are significant contributors of the perception held by postgraduate students towards university libraries in Kenya. Overall, satisfaction with e-resources was identified as having the most significant influence on perception of university libraries by postgraduate students, followed by support services on e-resources and then library staff competencies. The study recommended need for the universities’ library management to strengthen e-resource support services, enhance library staff competencies through training and development programs up mechanisms for enhancing users’ satisfaction in university libraries. The results have implications on continuous capacity building policies and programs of library staff.