LITERATURE REVIEW
3.3 Outcomes of e-library database use in shaping academic life
56 Finally, the present research study avoids the technological, financial, and infrastructural constraints reported at length in existing literature but instead seeks to explore the utilisation of the online databases and associated issues, which are much less documented. The rich information gathered through this ethnographic study provides new insights for the university libraries to improve services (Mahapatra, 2017). It could as well change users‟ thinking towards engagement with the e-library databases.
57 The literature on the relationship between performance in terms of academic function and its relation to an academic‟s workload was examined within higher education in the UK by Graham (2014). The review results reveal that even as there are assumed connections between workload management and performance, these have not been explored. The current research study seeks to establish a link between workload management and how e-library database usage transforms academic life (academics‟ performance/productivity) and offer suggestions based on the research questions and objectives.
Cannizzo and Osbaldiston (2015) examined the experiences of work/life balance of academics working in Australian institutions and found that academics are reporting higher work hours than denoted for the Australian professional employees. Furthermore, the survey outcome suggests that longer work hours produce higher research outputs in publications. The result further indicated that pressures on academics to progress through publication statistics causes the idea of work/life weighing scale to become porous, with many academics having very tight schedules. Additional research is required to assemble information through interaction with the academics on how they experience work and how they describe „life‟ in the academic environment.
In this regard, academics‟ responsibilities are increasing to the extent that effective means for the allotment of their jobs are currently crucial (Kenny &
Fluck, 2014). The researchers mentioned above studied the efficiency of the workload distribution model at Australian Universities report that an effective workload allocation process entails academic staff to be involved in its development and execution to guarantee its trustworthiness and fairness. The study specifically sought academics‟ opinions concerning the capacity to manage workloads to create time for research using online library databases.
58 The scholars noted that despite the inherent difficulties of categorising academic work, nearly all universities in Australia agree as a policy to avoid work overload. The outcome of the study suggests that effectiveness is enhanced when expectations are linked directly to realistic workloads; despite rising pressure on academics to achieve the required task.
On the other hand, collegiality as an academic behavioural norm has been argued to be inadequately formed in a university faculty in Hong Kong (Macfarlane, 2016). Regardless of the importance academics attach to collegiality in higher education, Macfarlane observed how it has become a riff in academic life; as it is being characterised by seclusion and individual competition. This behaviour then calls for an investigation. One such investigation is the current one which employs the lens of e-library database use to understand academics‟ personal views for better insight.
Equally important, Nguyen et al.‟s (2016) study explored the affordance, obstacles, and motivations towards the engagement in research observed by lecturers at a university in Vietnam, found that although most of the respondents were aware of the importance of research, their research productivity was still low. Factors hindering academics‟ efficient performance/productivity were discovered to be financial support for research activities, teaching load, research collaboration, and research policy and practices. Accordingly, the current study uses the lens of the utilisation of e- library databases to view research activities, practices and collaboration.
Following this further, the use of e-library databases may correlate with academics‟ research efficiency. It is so because these resources occupy a distinguished place in promoting faculty research activities. Blewitt (2015) maintained that e-library databases research is a veritable instrument for
59 exploring problems, experiences, the actual situation of events and phenomena, which provides outcomes and proffers solutions to the problems.
Given that, a university library must not only be well equipped with the relevant resources but see to its responsibility of ensuring that the use of such information sources is maximised to the benefit of its patrons (Sohail
&Ahmad, 2017). The quality of these endeavours is a major determinant of efficiency and productivity in the academic environment. For this reason, quality research in the digital age is unattainable without effective utilisation of quality information resources, in this case, e-library databases.
Globally, some studies have been carried out on the outcome of e-library databases use in the university environment. Rafi, Ming and Ahmad (2018);
Mägi and Beerkens (2016); Ani, Ngulube and Onyancha (2015) confirmed that the use of library e-resources influence research productivity and other academic engagements. Equally, the impact of e-library databases on academic research productivity was quantitatively assessed in Pakistan by Rafi, Ming and Ahmad (2018). Data was gathered from the databases of 52 universities offered by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the literature published on the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science. Data were analysed using simple linear regression. Overall, the findings showed research productivity of the academic staff was related to use of online library databases. While the study provided information on the significant effect of e- library databases use on research productivity (publication output) of academic staff, it did not mention the direct impact of the publications and quality of the journals (journal rankings). Further exploration is needed to address this limitation using the lens of academic staff in universities in North-Central Nigeria to improve research on the utilisation of e-library databases.
60 Similarly, a comparative assessment of the result of electronic information resources (EIRs) use on academic staff research output was carried out by Iroaganachi and Izuagbe (2018) in selected universities in South-west Nigeria.
The objectives set out for the study were to find out academic staff inspiration for using EIRs for research; ascertain the most used, and determine the outcome of EIR use on academic staff research performances. The study covers academics in Federal, State and Private Universities in Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria. They were: Federal- University of Lagos and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta; State- Lagos State University and Tai- Solarin University of Education; and Private- Pan Atlantic and Covenant Universities. Results from the study made clear the significance of EIRs use for staff research productivity. Specifically, the research‟s finding revealed that academics‟ high acceptance and use of e-library databases was due to their provision of more current information, which can be accessed rapidly and conveniently. The results showed that academic staff mostly used Google scholar, Springer Link, Emerald, MyLibrary e-library databases, which boost conference, workshop participation, community services, and increased research output. Despite that, Iroaganachi and Izuagbe‟s study omitted the quality aspects of academic research performance. The present study is designed to tackle this shortcoming by improving our understanding of quality from the perspective of academic staff in their utilisation of e-library databases.
In reality, the quality of teaching and other university academic activities may depend on the library e-database‟s quality of academics use (Adetomiwa &
Okwilagwe, 2018). The preceding scholars studied the correlation of e-library databases use and research output of lecturers in private universities in South- West Nigeria. The study reported a positive correlation between e-library
61 database utilisation and the research output of the lecturers. The utilisation of electronic resources on research productivity of academic staff was also investigated at Nigerian universities by Ani, Ngulube and Onyancha (2015).
Using a quantitative approach, 586 respondents (279 from the University of Ibadan and 307 from the University of Calabar) academics were selected for the study. The survey found a correlation between the use of library electronic resources and research productivity at the selected Nigerian universities surveyed.
Adetomiwa and Okwilagwe‟s (2018) and Ani, Ngulube and Onyancha‟s (2015) studies focused on the correlation between the use of e-library databases and academic productivity. Even though scholarly publications to an institute of higher learning are important, there are other academic engagements in and outside the university that e-library databases research by academic staff could transform. The current study explores how e-library databases can better shape academics‟ collegial engagements and community services.