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time consuming. If I go into internet and research for information to read, I determine my pace of reading the information, for YouTube it’s very difficult because someone is reading or interpreting for you, for instance I can give an example, yesterday I wanted to number my assignment so I went to YouTube and then I wanted the tutorials which took so long, then I switched off the YouTube and went to google and typed and I read, which was fast and quick.
So I won’t recommend YouTube to anyone and I don’t use it for academic purposes. Facebook can be used for academic purposes but I think for us as blacks is very difficult, because if you are doing research and you post a topic and you want people to comment, you want to have their views, for black is all about fun and jokes if not jealousy, they won’t give you that information you are looking for. But then for whites, I have seen it when they want information could it be homework, they post in their timelines and people will be commenting positive stuff, so I think it works but with us there’s limitation” (Respondent A5).
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“Whenever I do my academic work like assignments and research, I always use online databases, they are very simple, they just give you what you want according to the key words you use. I use Ebscohost and Science direct”
(Respondent A3).
“Mostly I use Ebscohost, Sabinet and Science Direct, they are very much helpful especially when you need information, you just type the key words maybe on “Social Media and what…what…” then it will give you lot of information about social media” (Respondent C5).
“I only use it when I’m with A3, since she is the one who exposed to me Ebscohost yeah, I only use it when I’m doing research with her and it helps us when it comes to referencing. We only use them when we’re at the lab, we find it hard to access them when working from my rooms so yeah…” (Respondent A2).
“I use more, because you don’t only access it when you are in library, but even when you are outside the library, particularly when you check the university’s portal and e-resources databases where the university has subscribed to a number of accredited journals and books where one can research, you can find the information that you need when you conduct research or whatever assignment you are doing” (Respondent B4).
“The electronic databases are more like an advanced search, because within the databases there are web addresses which directs you to the information that you are in need of so I would say I use it most of the time when I go to the library” (Respondent B7).
“I never use them because mostly I use Google Scholar to search any information so I could say I never came across any work which requires me to go directly to online databases, maybe in future but for now I never used them”
(Respondent A1).
Some participants also acknowledged that electronic databases provided by their respective libraries play a significant role for their academic performance. Some
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mentioned that they understand that universities are investing in these platforms for student achievements, since students cannot afford to subscribe to journals on their own. The following views were expressed:
“Yeah, they make things easier whenever you want academic information. They are rich with lot of articles which one can use for research or even assignments.
They also help us when we want to reference our work, I tend to use them a lot” (Respondent A3).
“They play a vital role because for those databases the university subscribe to these journals where on our own we couldn’t get access to them, but the university ensure that we get access to this information” (Respondent C4).
“There information there is very broad, there’s a database called Ebscohost, it’s rich with academic information, as long as you are using university credentials, you can access lot of information from it. It plays a huge part because the information is just in your fingertips” (Respondent D1).
“I use electronic databases when I can’t find reference” (Respondent E4).
However, some participants indicated that they had never used online library resources because they were not aware of such platforms. Most participants had heard about electronic databases for the first time during the data collection of this study. The majority of these participants were undergraduates, thus, they were not exposed to such platforms since they were not doing any research projects except conducting research for writing assignments. In this regard, the following views were expressed:
“Eish, I have never used electronic databases, it’s new to me, I have never used them because I have never been taught about them” (Respondent C1).
“Well I’m also not too familiar with databases, I mostly use Google Scholar. I would appreciate to learn how to use such platforms since I’m also planning to do my masters in the future” (Respondent F2).
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“Aah, I don’t know anything about electronic databases” (Respondent D7).
“I don’t know what those databases are” (Respondent D4).
“I don’t know about the electronic databases” (Respondent D5).
“Eish, yeah I have never used that thing, I’m always in my room with my laptop I’m sorted” (Respondent D8).
Some participants indicated that they used online library resources for wrong reasons.
These students mentioned that they normally used journal articles to get references for their assignments. Some students indicated that they would first “copy and paste”
information from other sources such as Wikipedia, then used references from articles since they were discouraged to use information from Wikipedia for their academic work. One participant expressed the following:
“I only use them to avoid plagiarism, I’ll fabricate the sources. Majority of us we don’t use it because we don’t have much information about it, we had a meeting with the librarians, we were discussing about this, that the university is spending lot of money, but we’re not using it because we don’t know it” (Respondent E3)
Theme 13: Recommendations for university management and academics on the