E-RESOURCES UTILIZATION PATTERN BY THE USERS OF SELECTEDMEDICAL COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN CHENGALPATTU DISTRICT

Abstract

Electronic resources have become indispensable to medical education, clinical practice, and biomedical research, and academic health sciences libraries increasingly measure their relevance by how effectively users exploit these resources. The study examines the utilization pattern of e-resources among users of six selected medical college libraries in Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu, namely SRM Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Government Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital, Melmaruvathur Aathiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, and Bhaarat Medical College & Hospital. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 250 users at each institution (1,500 in total), of which 1,397 usable responses were received, yielding an overall response rate of 93.13 per cent. The sample comprised 714 male (51.11%) and 683 female (48.89%) respondents, fairly evenly distributed across the six institutions. The study investigated respondents' awareness of available e-resources, purpose and frequency of use, preferred resource types and platforms, search skills, infrastructural support, barriers encountered, and overall satisfaction. Findings indicate that while awareness of institutionally subscribed e-resources and consortia such as HELINET is fairly widespread, actual utilization is uneven across user categories and is shaped by factors such as infrastructural constraints, information literacy skill levels, and time pressures associated with clinical duties. The study discusses these patterns and offers recommendations for enhancing e-resource promotion, user training, and infrastructure to improve utilization among medical college library users.