Omoniwa (2003) observes that power will rest largely on staff that
possesses multiple skills. Employment of librarians for instance, should
be based on skills in technology applications. This strategy would
improve on e-resource utilization, as library staff would be expected to
provide leadership in computer applications such as Internet and CD-ROM
translate into a greater ability of students to exploit the massive
technologies in academic libraries in developing countries. In the
opinion of Dai et al. (2000), there is a need for a library consortium
that will ensure collective acquisition of e-resources. This will enable
financially weak libraries to contribute to a general pool that would
ensure the utilization of jointly acquired ICT facilities as a means of
gaining easy access for the users. A consortium with the collective
strength of resources of various institutions available to it is in a
better position to resolve (Bedi and Sharma, 2004). Therefore, consortia
are imperative alliances for the purpose of identifying and addressing
common needs arising from development in information technology,
especially the growing importance of the internet and the World Wide
Web. According to Bedi and Sharma (2004) the strategies in this
direction include among others:
i.· Selecting a coordinating agency
to work on behalf of the entire group of participants that will be
charged with executing and monitoring programs and activities.
ii.
Identifying and negotiating with the potential publishers/vendors or
aggregators to provide access in which purchase is done by consortia.
iii.
Identifying the necessary infrastructure for electronic access to
resources and download the required materials without even going through
the elaborate process of inter-library lending.
A study
conducted by Gakibayo et al. (2013) on utilization of electronic
resources by students of MbararaUniversity found that majority of
(61.6%) respondents suggested that first year students from all
faculties should be introduced to computer training at the first year of
study at the university. While other (60.5%) were of the opinion that
the University should have more networked computers. According to Ray
and Day (1998) the University should make efforts to improve students’
computer skills through training and information literacy. extensive
experience in user education programs has shown that teaching
information retrieval skills to students should be embedded in the
curriculum, and instruction should be given at a time when users can
understand its appropriateness. Students need to be encouraged by their
lecturers to use e-resources for references to enable students to use
and locate these resources. This may increase the number of students
acquiring the necessary information retrieval skills. If students are
not encouraged to use electronic resources by their lecturers, and if
information skills training occur outside the curriculum, students will
be less likely to make use of electronic resources for academic
purposes.
2.7 Challenges to Utilization of Electronic Information Resources by Library Users
Manda (2005) reported that the problems faced by users of electronic
resources in his study were similar, with little differences across
institutions. According to Manda (2005), 75% of academic staff and 50%
of all students said that the Internet slow speed was a problem. The
problems of server and low bandwidth, according to Chifwep (2003),
discouraged users from the use of electronic resources. Among the
problems, which he termed inhibitors, server problems accounted for
77.1%, 31.4% for connectivity problem and 17.1% for lack of good
guidance on how to use the Internet and electronic resources
Insufficient bandwidth congests the network, making it impossible to
download full text electronic resources. When the network is congested,
the speed becomes very slow resulting to users' frustration. Gwynn and
Rosenberg (2005) reported that universities in Africa had between
512Kbps to 2/3Mbps. According to Mortenson Report (2005), a
PDF-formatted image document that is a common format for full text
library resources is a 2Mbps typical file size. Bandwidth connectivity
of one Mbps to 2Mbps of most Nigerian College of Education Libraries is
inadequate to support real-time electronic resource access delivery. "
