Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Apr;91(2):231-40.

Measuring use patterns of online journals and databases

Sandra L De Groote  1 , Josephine L Dorsch
Affiliations

Measuring use patterns of online journals and databases

Sandra L De Groote et al. J Med Libr Assoc. 2003 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: This research sought to determine use of online biomedical journals and databases and to assess current user characteristics associated with the use of online resources in an academic health sciences center.

Setting: The Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria is a regional site of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Library with 350 print journals, more than 4,000 online journals, and multiple online databases.

Methodology: A survey was designed to assess online journal use, print journal use, database use, computer literacy levels, and other library user characteristics. A survey was sent through campus mail to all (471) UIC Peoria faculty, residents, and students.

Results: Forty-one percent (188) of the surveys were returned. Ninety-eight percent of the students, faculty, and residents reported having convenient access to a computer connected to the Internet. While 53% of the users indicated they searched MEDLINE at least once a week, other databases showed much lower usage. Overall, 71% of respondents indicated a preference for online over print journals when possible.

Conclusions: Users prefer online resources to print, and many choose to access these online resources remotely. Convenience and full-text availability appear to play roles in selecting online resources. The findings of this study suggest that databases without links to full text and online journal collections without links from bibliographic databases will have lower use. These findings have implications for collection development, promotion of library resources, and end-user training.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Frequency of MEDLINE use by user group
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequency of Journals@Ovid use by user group
Figure 3
Figure 3
Locations of online resources access by user group
Figure 4
Figure 4
Ways journal articles are accessed by user group
Figure 5
Figure 5
Reason for using online databases
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Scherrer CS, Jacobson S. New measures for new roles: defining and measuring the current practices of health sciences librarians. J Med Libr Assoc. 2002 Apr; 90(2):164–72. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hurd JM, Weller AC. From print to electronic: the adoption of information technology by academic chemists. Sci & Tech Libr 1997;16(3–4):147–70.
    1. Curtis KL, Weller AC, and Hurd JM. Information-seeking behavior of health sciences faculty: the impact of new information technologies. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1997 Oct; 85(4):402–10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grefsheim S, Franklin J, and Cunningham D. Biotechnology awareness study, part 1: where scientists get their information. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1991 Jan; 79(1):36–44. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grefsheim S, Franklin J, and Cunningham D. Biotechnology awareness study, part 1: where scientists get their information. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1991 Jan; 79(1):36–44. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources