Awareness, Usage, and Satisfaction with Online Databases Subscribed by the UGC Consortium and National Science Foundation among Academics in Eastern University, Sri Lanka

The massive proliferation of online databases has profoundly impacted academic research and scholarly communication. This study describes the results of a questionnaire-based survey, which was conducted to investigate awareness, usage and satisfaction with subscribed online databases among academics at Eastern University, Sri Lanka (EUSL). Self-administrated questionnaires were distributed among staff members from all six faculties of Eastern University, Sri Lanka and three departments of Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies (SVIAS), Eastern University, Sri Lanka (n=149). Data were analyzed descriptively using SPSS software. The results revealed that the main purpose of using the subscribed databases was scholarly communication, which was around 60%. A substantial percentage (82%) of staff visited the library website to access the links for these databases.
Although the university provided remote access to these subscribed databases through user authentication, most respondents (61%) were unaware of the off-campus access. Further, the highest percentage (81.1%) of the staff were satisfied with the appropriateness of the databases. As an overall picture, these subscribed databases were rarely accessed by academics. The findings clearly stated that a few percent of staff were satisfied with the databases in terms of accessing all the articles they needed. The study recommends that the library should subscribe to more online databases that are relevant to the needs of the academic staff and students at the university. Academic libraries ought to implement innovative tactics to encourage the use of online databases to which they have subscriptions.