Internet Usage among Research Scholars of Pondicherry University: A Survey

Abstract

Internet is available in the Pondicherry University campus. The present study is aimed at studying Internet usage among research scholars of Pondicherry University (PU). It is intended to assess Internet awareness of research scholars, the types of Internet users, purpose and frequency of using the Internet, problems in accessing the Internet, search methods used in accessing them, satisfaction with Internet usage, adequacy of Internet, and user training provided by the university library in accessing the Internet. The survey method is adopted in the present study. A sample of 100 research scholars of Pondicherry University were selected by the simple random method, out of 800 full-time research scholars. A well-structured questionnaire was designed, keeping in mind the objectives of the study. Data was collected from the research scholars using the questionnaire tool. The findings of the study reveal that a majority of research scholars (91%) use the Internet from their respective departments. A majority of them (41%) replied that the use of the Internet improves/refines the quality of their research by 50% to 75%. A majority of research scholars (62%) use the Internet for less than one hour daily for social networking purposes. Most of the research scholars (67%) replied that they never prefer the SGML format to read the information on the Internet. A majority (60%) use the PDF format. A majority (73%) use e-books on the Internet. Most of the research scholars (75%) use Google. A majority (74%) are aware of e-mail services. A majority (85%) face the problem of low speed Internet. A high percentage of research scholars (36%) create new entries. A major problem faced by the research scholars was ‘slow Internet connectivity’ (70%). The majority of them (70%) replied that Pondicherry University.

Keywords: Internet, Internet Services, Internet Uses, E-mail, E-Books, User Surveys, University Libraries

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