Summary
Study on Awareness of Electronic Resources in Engineering Colleges
Highlights
Data Analysis
Online Databases are the most recognized resource (48.31%), followed by E-Books (17.91%) and Institutional Repositories (13.99%). Awareness of E-Journals, Open Access journals, Digital Libraries, and MOOCs remains significantly lower, suggesting a preference for structured academic databases over emerging platforms.
Institution-wise Interpretation: AEC
AEC respondents show a balanced awareness profile, primarily recognizing Online Databases (47.25%), followed by E-Books (14.29%), and an equal split between Institutional Repositories and Open Access Journals (10.99%).
Institution-wise Interpretation: AMACE
At AMACE, Online Databases lead at 48.60%, with E-Books following at 20.09%. Notably, the institution displays the most limited awareness of Digital Libraries at only 2.80%.
Institution-wise Interpretation: SBCEC
SBCEC displays a strong reliance on Online Databases (46.28%) and stands out as the institution with the highest awareness of Institutional Repositories (19.15%), reflecting a focus on internal scholarly collections.
Institution-wise Interpretation: SKP
SKP respondents show substantial awareness of Online Databases (46.54%), supported by secondary recognition of E-Books (19.82%) and Institutional Repositories (17.51%).
Institution-wise Interpretation: TCET
TCET holds the highest overall institutional awareness of Online Databases among the participating colleges, reaching 52.61%.
Overall Interpretation
The findings underscore that respondents equate electronic resources primarily with scholarly databases, highlighting the prevalence of database-driven research in engineering education.
Conclusion and Recommendations
While traditional resource awareness is satisfactory, the lower recognition of MOOCs and open access platforms indicates a clear need for library orientation programs. Expanding user knowledge of the full spectrum of electronic services is essential to boost research productivity and support lifelong learning.
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Original text
Data Analysis
The findings reveal that Online Databases constitute the most widely recognized category of electronic resources, accounting for 542 respondents (48.31%). This indicates that nearly half of all respondents primarily identify electronic resources with engineering databases, digital indexing services, and subscription-based scholarly information systems.
The second most recognized resource type is E-Books (17.91%), followed by Institutional Repositories (13.99%). Awareness of E-Journals (6.77%) and Open Access Journals (5.88%) is comparatively lower, while Digital Libraries (3.12%) and MOOCs (4.01%) received the least recognition. These findings suggest that respondents are more familiar with structured academic databases than with emerging digital learning platforms.
Among the institutions, TCET recorded the highest awareness of Online Databases (52.61%), whereas SBCEC demonstrated the highest awareness of Institutional Repositories (19.15%). The overall distribution shows remarkable similarity between postgraduate students and faculty members, indicating consistent awareness patterns across respondent groups.
Institution-wise Interpretation
AEC
Respondents primarily recognized Online Databases (47.25%), followed by E-Books (14.29%) and both Institutional Repositories and Open Access Journals (10.99%). The institution demonstrates balanced awareness of multiple electronic resource categories.
AMACE
At AMACE, Online Databases (48.60%) dominated awareness, while E-Books (20.09%) represented the second highest category. Awareness of Digital Libraries remained relatively limited (2.80%).
SBCEC
SBCEC showed strong awareness of Online Databases (46.28%) and recorded the highest Institutional Repository awareness (19.15%) among all participating institutions, indicating greater familiarity with institutional scholarly collections.
SKP
SKP respondents displayed substantial awareness of Online Databases (46.54%), with E-Books (19.82%) and Institutional Repositories (17.51%) emerging as important secondary resource types.
TCET
TCET achieved the highest institutional awareness of Online Databases (52.61%), demonstrating the strongest recognition of database-based electronic information resources among the five engineering colleges.
Overall Interpretation
The overall results indicate that respondents predominantly associate electronic resources with online scholarly databases, reflecting the increasing importance of database-driven research in engineering education. Although awareness of e-books and institutional repositories is satisfactory, comparatively limited recognition of digital libraries, MOOCs, and open access resources suggests the need for library orientation programmes that promote the full spectrum of electronic information services. Strengthening awareness of open educational resources would support lifelong learning and research productivity.