Accessibility and utilization of scholarly electronic journals by members of academic staff: a case study of DUCE

The study was conducted to investigate whether there was an improvement in the level of access and utilization of scholarly electronic journals among members of academic staff at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE). The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research design. A total of total of forty seven (47) members of academic staff participated in this study. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents. Primary data for this study was collected through survey method using self- administered questionnaires supplemented by face-to-face interviews and observation. Analysis of data employed both descriptive and quantitative technique. The study findings revealed a low level of access and utilization of scholarly electronic journal by members of academic staff. The main reasons for this were limited access to computers connected to the internet, insufficient bandwidth, lack of awareness of available scholarly electronic journal databases, inadequate search skills, and the errelevance of electronic journals articles. The study further revealed that scholarly electronic journals were mainly used for academic and research purposes and that gender and faculty affiliation of members of academic staff influenced utilization of scholarly electronic journals. Moreover, the study revealed that most academic staff relied on search engines particularly Google for their main source of information compared to scholarly electronic journals and other library resources, due to perceived ease of using search engines and perceived usefulness of their search results. The study concluded that the institution has not play a significant role in influencing improvement in the level of access and utilization of scholarly electronic journals by members of academic staff by failing to implement recommendations made in previous studies on improving the level of access and use of electronic journals by academic staff. The study recommends increasing training along with formulating appropriate information literacy training, increasing awareness of electronic journal databases, increasing the number of computers connected to the internet, improving the bandwidth, formulating an ICT policy, subscribing to relevant electronic journals, and providing reliable electricity supply.