Discipline, availability of electronic resources and the use of Finnish National Electronic Library - FinELib

Abstract

This study elaborated relations between digital library use by university faculty, users' discipline and the availability of key resources in the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib), Finnish national digital library, by using nationwide representative survey data. The results show that the perceived availability of key electronic resources by researchers in FinELib was a stronger predictor of the frequency and purpose of use of its services than users' discipline. Regardless of discipline a good perceived provision of central resources led to a more frequent use of FinELib. The satisfaction with the services did not vary with the discipline, but with the perceived availability of resources.