Information Access and Digital Library use in University Students’ Education: The Case of Ankara University

AbstractIn this paper, an applied study was executed to expose the views and habituations of university students in regards to their use of digital library. The main aim of the study is to reveal the purpose of use, usage frequent and use tools for the digital library by students of Ankara University. The survey was carried out in three selected faculties in Ankara University. The study adopted stratified sampling to achieve a sample that approximated the distribution of the students in different faculties. The questionnaire was administered to 280 students, 169 students from Faculty of Letters, 52 students from faculty of pharmacy and 59 students from Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, selected randomly. The findings of the results show that whereas the students use the internet resources for school assignments, digital library is not yet placed as their first priority among their choices. One of the main reasons of this is not being aware of how to use the digital library. The second reason is that students find their own resources sufficient for their research. At the conclusion of the paper, orientation for digital library in curriculums at Ankara University is suggested to enable widespread use of the library services and networked resources among the students