THE USAGE OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES AT ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY
MIDLANDS LIBRARY, GWERU, ZIMBABWE

THE USAGE OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES AT ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY
MIDLANDS LIBRARY, GWERU, ZIMBABWE

MTHOKOZISI MASUMBIKA NCUBE

WILLARD TARUMBIRA

he advent of electronic resources in academic
circles towards the end of the 20th
I. INTRODUCTION
century presaged a fresh
landmark for research and scholarship as the innovation
offered academics and scholars in universities with extensive,
timely and contemporary sources of information. Therefore,
this research grew out of the realization that regardless of
numerous exertions that have been made by the Zimbabwe
Open University Midlands library to enhance access to these
resources, their usage among scholars remained very limited.
This pragmatic study, conducted in this library in Gweru,
endeavoured to find out why the utilization of electronic
resources within the library was limited, and also institute
what could be done to correct this problem. The study used
questionnaires, interviews, and observations to gather
information. The study established that the major cause of
low usage of electronic resources in the library was due to the
inadequate ICT resources within the library, which in turn
caused slow Internet connectivity. The study also established
that some of the students were not aware of the electronic
resources offered by the library. Therefore, the study
recommends that the library acquires adequate ICT
resources that facilitate electronic resources access; this
would also include increasing the bandwidth of the network
to expedite the Internet connectivity. The study also
recommends that the library undertakes diverse strategies to
market the electronic resources that the library offers. In
essence, the library should take a pro-active approach in
ensuring that electronic resources are utilized by students in
order for them to produce up to standard academic work,
and also such that they can enrich themselves through these
resources.

nternational Journal of Engineering and Management Research

2016