103
104
available for marketing, marketing strategies and techniques, the factors affecting the smooth running of marketing in the libraries and the measures that can be employed to address the challenges. The interview questions were systematically presented and reflected the principles of a syllogism from the general questions to the more specific. The details of the interview schedule are attached in Appendix 4. The next section discusses the survey questionnaire as an instrument use for the collection of data.
4.7.1.1 The survey questionnaires
This section discusses the survey questionnaire as a data collection instrument for the research.
A survey questionnaire is a research tool containing a series of questions and other prompts used to collect data from respondents (Kabir 2016). This indicates that data collection is fundamental in the research process; therefore, an instruments to collect the data has to be selected and a survey questionnaire is one of them. According to Bolarinwa (2015) a survey questionnaire is a set of questions that are used to collect data. In other words, it's a data collection 'tool' for gathering and recording data on a particular subject of interest. Some of the advantages of survey questionnaires include enabling the collecting of large amounts of data from a large number of people in a short period. It can be conducted by the researcher or a group of people with little impact on validity and reliability and results can usually be evaluated quickly and readily by the researcher and so on (Kabir 2016).
There are two main types of survey questionnaires namely the structured and the unstructured.
A combination of these is the semi-structured questionnaire, which is applied for the most part in social science research. In a structured survey questionnaire, both the questions and the responses are presented in an organized manner and the study participants must select the correct ones. At the same time, structured questionnaires contain open-ended or closed-ended questions. While in unstructured questionnaires, participants are allowed to respond to predefined questions in their own words (Sadan 2017).
The unstructured questionnaire on the other hand, entails open-ended and opinion kinds of questions where respondents do not select from pre-determined answer options but provide their own answers. Possibly, questions are not in the structure of interrogative sentences and the mediator or the enumerator needs to expound the sense of question. Focus group discussions utilize such a questionnaire (Acharya 2010). A survey questionnaire serves as the primary source of collecting data for abundance research (Zohrabi 2013). Structured
105
questionnaires contain pre-coded questions with precise skipping patterns to abide by the order of questions.
The researcher used a multiple-choice survey questionnaire to collect data from medical student respondents. It allows respondents to choose from a list of multiple choice answers.
The questions were both closed-ended and open-ended questions.
Some of the advantages of multiple choice survey questions, as identified by Kabir (2016) include:
i. They are simple to answer;
ii. They only require Yes or No answer;
iii. They are simple to do preliminary analysis; and
iv. They can be asked to various people at different interval and so forth.
The survey questionnaire therefore enables the researcher to obtain quantitative information from many respondents. More so, medical students were purposely, selected as respondents for the study. 365 questionnaires were administered to medical students with the help of research assistants at the four universities and 277 were returned, which represented a 76% response rate. The survey questionnaire administered consisted of twenty-four (24) various questions including background information under seven (7) different themes (A-G), such as the background information of respondents, resources and services for marketing, facilities available for marketing and marketing strategies. Other aspects covered in the questions were factors affecting the effective marketing of information resources and services in the libraries and lastly, the measures that can be employed to address the challenges. Eighteen (18) open questions and three (3) closed-ended questions were also included in the questionnaire (See Appendix 2 for details). The next section gives details about the interviewing process.
4.7.1.2. Interview method
This section discusses interview as data collection instrument used for the research. According to Adhabi and Anozie (2017) an interview can be defined as a method of conversation in which the researcher strives to learn more about a topic from the person being interviewed. This indicates that an interview is a data collection instrument that allows the researcher to get in- depth knowledge of the problem under investigation through face to, face online or any other form of interview. Qualitative research interview provides the researcher with a comprehensive
106
picture of the research phenomenon from respondents through verbal discussions and textual or graphic data (Sutton and Austin 2015). Some of the advantages of interview, as identified by Adhabi and Anozie (2017) include:
i. Interview allows the researcher to interject when necessary and ensure that the subject understands the topic under consideration; this indicates that even though the participants have the freedom to express their minds during the interview, their attention will be drawn when they deviate from the topic under investigation; and ii. Furthermore, interviewers get to put their interpersonal abilities to work by digging
deeper into major topics presented by the participant; that is to say, interviewers are free to use their skills to ask further clarification from the participants to get satisfactory responses; and
iii. They give participants the much-needed flexibility of explaining issues based on how well they understand them, meaning that the participant has the freedom to express their mind when interviewed on the topic.
The subsequent section presents the semi-structured interview for the study.
4.7.1.2.1. Semi-structured interview
The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with participants in order to get in-depth information about the phenomenon under investigation. DeJonckheere and Vaughn (2019) opined that a semi-structured interview allows the researcher to collect open-ended data, dig deeply into personal and sometimes sensitive issues and explore participant thoughts, feelings and opinions about a specific topic. The interview for this study was conducted in November, January and March respectively and each interview lasted between 35 to 45 minutes. The researcher interviewed all the heads of medical libraries. The next section discusses observation as an instrument used for data collection in the study.
4.7.1.3. Observation Checklist
This section discusses observation checklist as data collection instrument used for the research.
Observation is the foundation of ordinary social activity; people are keen observers of actions and the physical environment. They observe, assess, draw conclusions and offer comments on encounters and relationships (Ciesielska, Boström, and Öhlander 2018). It involves a
107
systematic scheduled and documented look at the subject of the study (Murgan 2015). Some of the advantages of observations, as identified by Murgan (2015) include:
i. It allows information acquired to relate to what is happening at the moment;
ii. It also, ensures the independence of participants who are not subjected to cooperation of any kind;
iii. Observation technique has that characteristic of directness that can complement information acquired through primary techniques such as questionnaires and interview;
iv. It provides immediate information on a person or groups behaviour;
v. It excludes bias when its conducted directly and precisely; and
vi. Finally, it is also appropriate for participants who are unable to give verbal reports.
Non-participant observation was used for this study. The researcher used it to understand the environment, relationships and interactions uniquely without using commonly used categorizations and evaluations (Ciesielska, et al. 2018). In other words, non-participant observation implies that the observer is looking on and does not play an active role (Urquhart 2015).The observation covers Research Objective Number One of the current study. This observed the policy documents of medical libraries, physical structure and surroundings, the resources available in terms of volumes and currency, facilities available and library user turn- out. See Appendix 5 the observation checklist for details. The next section discusses administration of the research instruments for the study.
4.7.2. The administration of research instruments
The questionnaire was administered to the respondents by the research assistants employed in the medical libraries under study. One research assistant was selected from the staff of each of the medical libraries under investigation. There were 13 medical library staff from BUK, 20 from ABU, 10 from UDUS and 4 from KASU. The research assistants were trained based on the ethical guidelines of the university (UKZN). This is to ensure that they did not impact the credibility of the data. They were employed purposely to assist the researcher in administering the research instruments for strong follow-ups and a prompt response from the medical students. The next section discusses data analysis techniques.
108