A survey of the use of electronic services at Glasgow Caledonian University Library

Abstract

This paper describes a survey of the use of the electronic information floor (EIF) located in Glasgow Caledonian University’s Caledonian Library and Information Centre. The survey used both observational and questionnaire based methods and builds on a previous study which used focus groups and semi‐structured interviews. The study was divided into two parts: an observational study and a questionnaire based study. The observational study found word processing, sending and receiving e‐mail, and Web browsing to be the most common activities. The more substantial part of the study was questionnaire based, the questionnaire being administered both on paper and electronically. The main findings were: most respondents were full‐time students: most respondents were PC rather than Mac users; only 18 per cent use CD‐ROMs and only about 13 per cent use online databases. About a third had problems in using the EIF. The main overall conclusions are that information searching is a minority activity and that the volume of non‐curricular activity is substantial but unquantified.

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