Study title

Use of Electronic Library Resources 2004: Finnish Research Institutes

Dataset ID Number

FSD2877

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2877
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd2877

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib)

Abstract

The survey studied user views on the electronic resources provided by Finnish research institute libraries (special libraries). Electronic resources were taken to include, for instance, electronic publications, e-books, online dictionaries and reference databases.

The respondents were first asked about their scientific discipline, whether their field of study was a new one, the extent to which there existed a consensus in the discipline regarding important research topics and theory, whether the respondents did research alone or in a group, and to what extent different publication formats (e.g. scholarly monographs, peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, handbooks) were valued in their field. The extent of using interdisciplinary publications and publications from own discipline was explored.

Next, the respondents were asked the extent of using e-resources and printed material in general and whether they would have been willing to give up printed materials (books, journals, dictionaries) if electronic versions had been provided by the library. The next set of questions charted views on the importance of various FinELib databases and resources, reasons for not having used the resources and the source from which they had heard about the resources. The respondents were asked how often they used FinELib resources, where they mainly accessed them and for which purposes they had used FinELib services.

Relating to user experience, questions charted whether the respondents thought the most important works in their discipline could be found in the FinELib resources, opinions on the kind of material that should be included in the resources (e.g. foreign scientific journals, dictionaries), problems encountered when using the resources, and training needs related to the use of the resources. Further questions probed the respondents' views on their colleagues' use of FinELib resources, on the future use of FinELib resources in general, on the strengths and weaknesses of FinELib, and general satisfaction with the resources.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, research institute, staff group and field of study or research.

Keywords

electronic resources; information retrieval; information/library resources; library services; online services; research; research centres; research facilities

Topic Classification

• Natural sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Information society (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Use of Electronic Library Resources

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Finnish National Electronic Library

Time Period Covered

2004

Collection Dates

2004

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Staff of research institutes

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

A link to the survey was available on the online services of research institutes.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

For reasons of privacy, the education/resarch field variables (q1.5b, q1.6) were removed from the data.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib): Use of Electronic Library Resources 2004: Finnish Research Institutes [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-09-13). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2877

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.