Undergraduates’ Perceptions and Use of the University Libraries Web Portal: Can Information Literacy Instruction Make a Difference?

摘要

There is a common concern among academic libraries thattheir library Web portals are being underutilized. Literaturepertaining to technology acceptance and informationsystems success indicates that user training plays a pivotalrole in fostering favorable attitudes, and facilitatinginformation systems usage among users. However, nostudy had been conducted to investigate the effect of usereducation on the acceptance and use of academic libraryWeb portals. To address this gap in the literature, theresearcher took the initiative to explore the impact of asemester-long credit-bearing information literacy course onundergraduate students’ perceptions and use of theUniversity at Albany Libraries Web portal. Data werecollected through two rounds of survey over a period of anacademic semester. Results showed that the informationliteracy course positively influenced participants’perceptions of the Libraries Web portal in terms ofperceived ease of use, information quality, system quality,and user satisfaction. Yet, the course did not have animpact on their perceptions of service quality. In addition,statistically significant differences were not found in theoverall frequency and duration of use, but in otherdimensions of use, namely purpose and task.