Use and impact of research4life resources on NHRC library users

Abstract

Reserch4Life is a major source of online scientific journals, books and databases in Nepal and other low or middle-income countries since 2002. It provides free access to over one hundred thousand academic and professional literatures. This study aimed to explore the use status of Research4life Resources by the Nepal Health Research Council library users and to identify its impact on their study and research work. It is entitled “Uses and Impact of Research4life Resources on NHRC Library Users”. This study was the beginning of a formal study on the accessibility of Research4Life resources for Nepalese researchers and to know its utilization, importance and challenges for NHRC library users and hence for Nepal. It has used the quantitative research method. Different types of literature from journals, books, thesis and websites were discovered, accessed and reviewed systematically. The data and information were collected using the questionnaire survey method. The population of the study was the library users at the NHRC library. A simple random sampling method used to select samples. Out of 50 questionnaires distributed to NHRC library users only 40 returned a completely filled questionnaire. The collected data have been tabulated, analyzed and presented in tables. It has used frequency distribution, listing the number of respondents and respective percentages. This study finds that all respondents knew and have used Research4Life resources. 75% of users depends on guidance from library staff to use it. 97.5% have used it for journals whereas only 50% have used it for books. Users mostly refer to Google Scholar (95%) and PubMed (85%) databases for literature search. Eighty percentage (80%) have accepted that Research4Life have very high or high importance on their scholarly. 75% have no direct access to the required user name and password which has prevented its use from anywhere at their appropriate time. Only 10% have gained formal training. The resources available through Research4Life has helped NHRC library users to gain full-text of costly academic and professional peer-reviewed content very easily. Research4Life resources has enhanced the study and research work of the users. It has helped them in publishing scholarly resources. Various recommendations were made such as to provide the required user name and password, to provide short or long-range formal training, make improvements in content XII portals, improve search functionality, easy access to full-text resources, promotion through different channels, motivating users to increase the use of Scopus abstract and citation database with enriched scholarly literature across a wide variety of disciplines and Summon search which search for the full-text of Research4Life content for a particular country, and so on. NHRC library has been facilitating well to enhance the utilization of the Research4life resources among its users. It has helped users to access very easily a bundle of valuable resources that has helped users to improve their scholarly works. A few difficulties faced by the users in access to Research4Life resources are recommended to improve.