Abstract:
The University of Zambia libraries keep both physical and digital resources that are essential for
educational development of the students and lecturers. This paper was guided by the following
objectives: To determine if students are aware of e-resources found in the main library, challenges
faced by students when accessing these e-resources in the library and to find out students who use
the e-resources found in the library. This study used descriptive research design and the target
population in this study were the undergraduate LIS students at the University of Zambia main
campus. The study sample consisted of sixty-two (62) students and used both qualitative and
quantitates research approach. In selecting the respondents, the study used both simple random
and judgmental sampling. The study found that most of the library and information science
students were aware of the e-resources that were found in the library. Further, the study established
that 59.9% representing 37 students were able to identify e-resources sometimes plus the 8% were
also able to identify the e-resources all the time which gives the majority of the students who were
at least able to identify e-resources. However, the reasons established by study for the lack of e-
resources identification were lack of orientation, not being a regular user of the library; do not find
useful materials in the databases and fond of using the repository online. Furthermore, 11% representing
7 students were able to retrieve information through the use of the university of Zambia library
computers and 47% representing 28 retrieved with personal computers which gave the majority of
students who could retrieve information by personal and University of Zambia computers.
Additionally, the majority of the students 81% representing 50 students were able to evaluate e-
resources before using. However, students faced some challenges such as information explosion,
poor internet, never had proper orientation, unavailability of useful e-resources, difficulties in
interacting with the user-interface, database failure at times when trying to access the e-resources,
less assistance from the library stuff, length of tasks or words, failure to identify proper retrieval
tools and it was hard to find key words. Finally, they also indicated that there was lack of proper
lecturing and lack of sufficient subscription. In conclusion, the majority of the students were able
to identify, retrieve, and evaluate e-resources though they faced some challenges.
