Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Institutional Repositories In The Czech Republic, Kelci Baughman Mcdowell

Gleeson Library Faculty and Staff Research and Scholarship

This research project examines the use of institutional repositories (IRs) by academic and research institutions in the Czech Republic. Six Czech institutional repositories are examined in context with the open access (OA) movement in the US and Europe in order to identify what goals have been achieved, what challenges lie ahead, and how the IR functions within the academic ecosystem. IR development in the Czech Republic has been driven by a government statute to provide electronic access to theses and dissertations (ETDs), yet five out of the six IRs hold more content than ETDs alone. Despite not being totally OA, …

E-Book Adoption In Academic And Research Libraries, Pervaiz Ahmad

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Electronic books (e-books) have grown in importance in Academic and Research Libraries (ARLs). Some ARLs are now spending more on e-book acquisitions than hardcopy books. Whether this investment in e-book provision is justified by adoption outcomes is often the subject of simplistic, rather than rigorous research. This research has attempted to rigorously explore the phenomenon of e-book adoption in a case study ARL, namely, Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library.

The study population consisted of ECU academics, students and non-academic staff. The research had three aims. First, by employing a theoretical framework based on technology adoption and information behaviour theory, the …