Open AccessTrends in the use of digital libraries by scientists in 2000‐2005: A case study of finelib
Author(s) -
Vakkari Pertti
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
DOI - 10.1002/meet.1450430132
Subject(s) - discipline , digital library , electronic library , world wide web , usage data , digital collections , variation (astronomy) , library science , computer science , sociology , social science , art , physics , literature , poetry , astrophysics
This study explores the trends in the use of electronic material and digital libraries by university faculty between the years 2000 and 2005. The data consist of nationwide web‐based surveys of the end‐users of FinELib, Finnish Electronic Library, at all Finnish universities. Although material provision has grown tremendously and consequently the use of electronic literature and of FinELib, the clients were polarizing into frequent and infrequent users. Perceived availability of the material provided was a major factor influencing this polarization. Availability was significantly stronger predictor of the use than users' discipline. It seems that availability underlies the disciplinary variation in the use of digital libraries.