WILL THE INTERNET REPLACE LIBRARIES? – AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON UNIVERSITY BUSINESS STUDENTS ’ PERCEPTIONS IN THE ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENT

Traditionally, academic libraries have been viewed central to information seeking and acquisition of knowledge in learning. However, the Internet has become an alternative tool for university students in information seeking and access due to its convenience and ease of use. Some literature indicates that the popularity of using the Internet by students in learning is challenging the existence of physical libraries. The purpose of this study is to investigate undergraduate business students ’ perceptions of internet and library in academic information seeking. A total of 334 respondents from a private university participated in this research. The participants consist of Year 1 to Year 3 business students. Chi-square test was conducted to determine the relationships of demographic characteristics on two aspects: (1) how reliable the materials found at the internet compared to materials of the academic library; (2) the belief the internet will eventually replace libraries. The study examines the associations between the independent variables of gender, levels of study and years of computer technology experiences with dependent variables of non-parametric data. The results provide exploratory understanding of business students ’ perceptions of an information centre compared to an information portal in the electronic environment. O