The study aimed at finding user challenges for the commonly used online database systems in Higher Education Institutions in Tanzania (HEIs). Two research objectives were formulated as a means to guide and meet the research aim stated above. The study adopted a case study with both quantitative and qualitative methods approach in which a survey was run across 12 HEIs in Tanzania. In order to draw a representative sample of the population, a simple random sampling strategy was adopted in which all participants were given equal chance of being selected. As a result, a total of 559 students, and 149 Academic Staff participated in the study.
The major findings show that Wiley online library, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and JSTOR are the commonly used databases but the level of access is very low (mostly to students) due to internal and external challenges like slow internet connection, the difficulty of using online databases, unavailability of online databases, and poor support. The overwhelming evidence collected from the survey suggests that HEIs ought to do enough to ensure the value for money on the subscribed online resources.
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In-Text Citation: (Ngessa, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Ngessa, V. (2018). User Challenges and Top used Online Databases: A Survey of Higher Education Institutions in Tanzania. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(5), 382–396.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
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