FACULTY PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL INFORMATION ACCESS: A STUDY OF ARTS AND SCIENCE COLLEGES IN THOOTHUKUDI DISTRICT, TAMIL NADU

Abstract

Digital information resources have become central to teaching, research and professional development in higher education. This study examines how faculty members of arts and science colleges in Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu, access digital information. A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire, and responses were obtained from 782 faculty members. Of these, 579 (74.04%) were female and 203 (25.96%) were male; 568 (72.63%) were assistant professors and 214 (27.37%) were associate professors. The study covers the faculty's frequency and purpose of access, the sources preferred, the problems encountered and the level of satisfaction.  The findings of the study was the purpose of using digital information, as this was a multiple-response question, the 782 respondents gave 1198 responses, of which 774 came from Assistant Professors and 424 from Associate Professors. the findings show that Google is the preferred search engine of the faculty members, followed by Yahoo, while the other search engines are used by small minorities. The findings show that the faculty members mostly search by title, author name and subject heading, and that the use of keywords, Boolean operators and advanced search is limited. Libraries should therefore organize training in keyword selection, Boolean operators and advanced search techniques, so that faculty can retrieve digital information more precisely and recommends better infrastructure, regular training and stronger library support for digital access.